Changes in plant species dominance maintain community biomass production under warming and precipitation addition in temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Dominant species play a crucial role in regulating plant community structure and productivity. Climate change affects community productivity by changing plant traits and resource use efficiency. However, the response of the productivity of a dominant species to warming and precipitation addition and the related effects on community biomass production in semi-arid grasslands remain unclear. We conducted a ten-year warming and precipitation addition study of a semi-arid steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. We examined the responses of community composition, biomass production, and trait and resource use efficiency of two dominant species, Leymus chinensis (rhizome grass) and Stipa krylovii. The results show that warming and precipitation increased the biomass of L. chinensis and decreased the biomass of S. krylovii. Community biomass production was unchanged under warming and precipitation from the contrasting changes in the two dominant species. Warming significantly increased the leaf area (LA) of L. chinensis and S. krylovii compared to that in ambient conditions, while it decreased the specific leaf area (SLA) and δ13C of S. krylovii. Increases in temperature stimulated biomass production of L. chinensis by affecting salicylic acid (SA) and GA (gibberellin), and they increased its competitive ability compared with that of S. krylovii. Our results highlight the different responses of L. chinensis and S. krylovii to environmental changes, which stabilised community productivity under warming and precipitation. Our study provides evidence that S. krylovii may be replaced by L. chinensis in steppe climates in the warmer and wetter future.