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Updated: Jul 13, 2025
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A CO2 Concentration Gradient Facility for Testing CO2 Enrichment and Soil Effects on Grassland Ecosystem Function
Published on: November 21, 2015
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Multidimensional responses of grassland stability to eutrophication
Qingqing Chen1,2, Shaopeng Wang3, Elizabeth T Borer4
1Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Nature Communications
|October 11, 2023
Summary
Nutrient addition harms grassland stability, reducing species richness and community composition resilience. Biomass stability remained unaffected, highlighting complex ecosystem responses to eutrophication.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Global Change Biology
Background:
- Eutrophication impacts grassland biodiversity, community composition, and biomass production.
- The effect of eutrophication on the stability of these grassland community aspects remains unclear.
- Ecological stability is multifaceted, with varying degrees of correlation between different stability measures (dimensionality).
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify the effects of nutrient addition on five facets of grassland stability.
- To assess stability across three community aspects: aboveground biomass, community composition, and species richness.
- To investigate the dimensionality of ecological stability in grasslands.
Main Methods:
- Utilized standardized experiments from the global NutNet (Nutrient Network) experiment across 55 grassland sites.
- Quantified nutrient addition effects on temporal invariability, resistance (during dry/wet seasons), and recovery (after dry/wet seasons).
- Measured stability across aboveground biomass, community composition, and species richness.
Main Results:
- Nutrient addition significantly reduced temporal invariability and resistance of species richness and community composition, particularly during dry and wet growing seasons.
- Biomass stability (invariability, resistance, recovery) was not significantly affected by nutrient addition.
- Different measures of stability were largely uncorrelated under both ambient and eutrophic conditions, indicating high dimensionality.
Conclusions:
- Nutrient addition negatively impacts grassland community composition and species richness stability, but not biomass stability.
- The high dimensionality of ecological stability suggests complex and varied ecosystem responses.
- Understanding stability dimensionality is crucial for predicting grassland ecosystem responses to global environmental change.
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