Precipitation variability interacts with mean precipitation to restructure a semiarid grassland community

Climate forecasts project change not only in the mean of climate variables but also in their variance. If these dual changes interact, then future ecological dynamics will be difficult to predict using current experimental approaches, which typically change the mean or impose a single extreme event, such as drought. We designed a new field experiment to factorially reduce mean precipitation and increase its interannual variability. Across 4 years, drier, more variable precipitation additively reduced aboveground primary productivity by 48%-69% and interactively reduced the dominant plant species, but had no effect on the plant species predicted to dominate in the future, which could lead to state transition. Drier, more variable precipitation also interactively reduced biodiversity more than either climate factor alone, with 37%-42% fewer plant species than under ambient conditions, a pattern that matched declining richness during the past 20 years of ongoing climate change. Drier, more variable precipitation restructured the composition and spatiotemporal variation of the plant community. Altered precipitation mean or variance affected 14% of plant species, with eight species sensitive to the mean × variance interaction. Results suggest that future forecasts of plant community structure may be inadequate if they fail to incorporate climate mean × variance interactions.