Dominant Species Drive Biomass and Diversity Responses to Nutrient Inputs

Global change is enriching terrestrial ecosystems with multiple nutrients and amplifying interannual variation in precipitation. Grassland productivity may be co-limited by combinations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). How these nutrients may interact with each other or with varying precipitation to influence the contributions of dominant species and functional groups to aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and species diversity is rarely considered. We fertilized a mesic grassland for 5 years with all combinations of N, P, and K+ micronutrients in the first year (Kμ) to test which nutrients (1) limited ANPP and functional group biomass, (2) reordered dominant species and impacted plant species diversity, and (3) interacted with annual precipitation to influence these responses. Adding N and P together disproportionately increased ANPP, but adding both N and P or N and Kμ disproportionately increased forb biomass to account for nearly all (90%) of ANPP. Grass biomass was correlated with light availability, not nutrients, and legume biomass decreased with added N, with or without other nutrients. Nutrient combinations (mainly NP and NPKμ) causing the greatest increases in forb biomass and ANPP also resulted in replacement of dominant species by an annual forb and decreased species diversity (Shannon index), evenness, and species richness. Nutrient combinations (P, Kμ, PKμ) not increasing biomass favored dominance by C4 grasses and increased species richness. N effects on ANPP, species diversity, and richness were greater in years with higher annual precipitation. Annual precipitation interacted with all three nutrients to exert sometimes positive and sometimes negative feedback on the abundance of the most dominant species. Dominant species drive nutrient effects on community productivity and species diversity. An expanded definition of nutrient limitation incorporating constituent responses will improve understanding of anthropogenic nutrient inputs on ecosystem productivity and related ecosystem services.