Dominant species control effects of nitrogen addition on ecosystem stability

Abstract

Increased nitrogen (N) deposition is known to reduce the ecosystem stability, while the underlying mechanisms are still controversial. We conducted an 8-year multi-level N addition experiment in a temperate semi-arid grassland to identify the mechanisms (biodiversity, species asynchrony, population stability and dominant species stability) driving the N-induced loss of temporal stability of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP). We found that N addition decreased ecosystem, population, and dominant species stability; decreased species richness and phylogenetic diversity; increased species dominance; but had nonsignificant effects on community-wide species asynchrony. Structural equation model revealed that N-induced loss of ecosystem stability was mainly driven by the loss of dominant species stability and the reduction in population stability. Moreover, species relative instability was negatively related with species relative production and the slopes increase with N addition, indicating that N addition weakened the stabilizing effect of dominant species on ecosystem function. Overall, our results highlight that the dominant species control the temporal stability of ANPP in grassland ecosystem under N addition, and support ‘dominance management’ as an effective strategy for conserving ecosystem functioning in grassland under N deposition.