Abstract
Abstract The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as floods, requires management strategies that promote resilience of grassland productivity. Mixtures of plant species may better resist and recover from flooding than monocultures, as they could combine species with stress‐coping and resource acquisition traits. This has not yet been tested in intensively managed grasslands despite its relevance for enhancing agroecosystem resilience. Using intact soil cores from an 18‐month‐old field experiment, we tested how 11 plant communities (Festuca arundinacea, Lolium perenne, Poa trivialis and Trifolium repens in monoculture, two‐ and four‐species mixtures) resist and recover from repeated flooding in a 4‐month greenhouse experiment. We found that plant community composition, not whether the community was a mixture or monoculture, influenced the community's resistance to flooding, although most communities were able to resist and recover from both floods. The plant community's position on the leaf economic spectrum in flooded conditions was related to its resistance to and recovery from flooding. Resistance to and recovery from a severe flood were related to flood‐induced intraspecific trait variation, causing a shift in the community's position on the leaf resource economic spectrum. In flooded conditions, resource‐conservative communities (characterized by low specific leaf area, low leaf nitrogen content and high leaf dry matter content) better resisted and recovered from flooding. The community's position on the root resource economic spectrum was less connected to the community's resistance and recovery. Synthesis and applications. Our study shows that in flooded conditions, resource‐conservative plant communities are more resilient to flooding than resource‐acquisitive communities in an intensively managed grassland. This suggests that plant community position on the leaf economic spectrum, as well as species’ flood‐induced intraspecific variation, should be considered when designing grasslands to withstand increasing flood frequency and severity.
Highlights
The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as floods, are predicted to increase in the near future due to climate change (IPCC, 2018; Stocker et al, 2013)
Resistance to and recovery from a severe flood were related to flood-induced intraspecific trait variation, causing a shift in the community's position on the leaf resource economic spectrum
Plant community's response to perturbation can be separated into two parts: how it withstands a perturbation and how well it returns to its pre-perturbed state afterwards
Summary
The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as floods, are predicted to increase in the near future due to climate change (IPCC, 2018; Stocker et al, 2013). Trait-based approaches are frequently used to explain plant community–ecosystem functioning relationships (Lavorel & Garnier, 2002) They can predict how plant communities resist and recover from perturbation (Díaz & Cabido, 2001) such as flooding (De Boeck et al, 2018). A plant community's position on the LES, that is, its strategy based on the traits of the component species, has been linked to plant productivity (Mason et al, 2016), N cycling and losses (Abalos, van Groenigen, & De Deyn, 2018; de Vries & Bardgett, 2016), as well as to response to flood perturbations in semi-natural grasslands (Fischer et al, 2016). 2. Plant communities with a conservative position on the leaf- and root economic spectrum (based on the traits of the plant species within the community) will be more resistant to flooding because of slower energy loss and organ mortality. Acquisitive communities will better recover because of higher nutrient acquisition and growth after the flood has passed
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