Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 21, 2026

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
Published on: March 21, 2025
Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian
Juan J Gaitán1, Donaldo Bran2, Gabriel Oliva3
1Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) Bariloche, Bariloche 8400, Argentina gaitan.juan@inta.gob.ar.
Abstract:
Drought is an increasingly common phenomenon in drylands as a consequence of climate change. We used 311 sites across a broad range of environmental conditions in Patagonian rangelands to evaluate how drought severity and temperature (abiotic factors) and vegetation structure (biotic factors) modulate the impact of a drought event on the annual integral of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI-I), our surrogate of ecosystem functioning. We found that NDVI-I decreases were larger with both increasing drought severity and temperature. Plant species richness (SR) and shrub cover (SC) attenuated the effects of drought on NDVI-I. Grass cover did not affect the impacts of drought on NDVI-I. Our results suggest that warming and species loss, two important imprints of global environmental change, could increase the vulnerability of Patagonian ecosystems to drought. Therefore, maintaining SR through appropriate grazing management can attenuate the adverse effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss
Ecological Succession
Responses to Drought and Flooding
Threats to Biodiversity
Ecological Disturbance
Habitat Fragmentation

