Northern China's Grasslands Research Articles

Behavioural responses to mammalian grazing expose insect herbivores to elevated risk of avian predation.

Large mammalian herbivores (LMH) are important functional components and drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in grasslands. Yet their role in regulating food-web dynamics and trophic cascades remains poorly understood. In the temperate grasslands of northern China, we explored whether and how grazing domestic cattle (Bos taurus) alter the predator-prey interactions between a dominant grasshopper (Euchorthippus unicolor) and its avian predator the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica). Using two large manipulative field experiments, we found that in the presence of cattle, grasshoppers increased their jumping frequency threefold, swallows increased foraging visits to these fields sixfold, and grasshopper density was reduced by about 50%. By manipulatively controlling the grasshoppers' ability to jump, we showed that jumping enables grasshoppers to avoid being incidentally consumed or trampled by cattle. However, jumping behaviour increased their consumption rates by swallows 37-fold compared with grasshoppers that were unable to jump. Our findings illustrate how LMH can indirectly alter predator-prey interactions by affecting behaviour of avian predators and herbivorous insects. These non-plant-mediated effects of LMH may influence trophic interactions in other grazing ecosystems and shape community structure and dynamics. We highlight that convoluted multispecies interactions may better explain how LMH control food-web dynamics in grasslands.

Drought and warming interaction cause substantial economic losses in the carbon market potential of China's northern grasslands

Grasslands are being threatened by global drought and warming. Economic assessments of changing grassland carbon sequestration, a prerequisite for nature-based climate-change mitigation policies, are limited when researchers inadequate consider interactions between drought and warming. Here, we quantified the responses of 35 grass biomasses to combined drought and warming, based on manipulation experiments from 34 peer-reviewed papers; subsequently, we matched them with grasslands in northern China—the eastern range of the larger Eurasian Steppe—and further projected the economic implications for carbon market trading and carbon-sequestration costs. The results show that carbon sequestration in all grassland types, except for forbrich steppe, was significantly reduced by the synergistic interactions of drought and warming. Approximately 10 % of the grasslands in central Xinjiang, identified as forbrich steppe, showed resilience to these stressors. In contrast, the rest of northern China's grasslands suffered increased carbon losses due to drought and warming. The combined effects of drought and warming have caused a loss of 1.6 × 104 million Chinese yuan (CNY) in revenue and excess carbon-sequestration costs exceeding 1.1 × 105 million CNY. Overall, our study results indicate that the synergistic effects of drought and warming significantly undermine the economic viability of carbon sequestration in most of northern China's grasslands. As climate change intensifies, understanding and incorporating the complex interactions of drought and warming can aid in the sustainable management of grassland ecosystems and the development of effective climate-change mitigation policies in arenas, including carbon markets.

Response of soil fungal-community structure and function to land conversion to agriculture in desert grassland.

Land conversion to agriculture is an important factor affecting soil ecological processes in the desert grasslands of northern China. However, soil fungal-community structure and function in response to Land conversion remain unclear. In this study, desert grassland, artificial shrubland, and land conversion were investigated in the western part of the Mu Us Sandland (Yanchi, Ningxia; Dingbian, Shaanxi). We found that land conversion significantly increased soil total carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and available phosphorous and potassium contents. In the early stage of conversion to agricultural (April), soil fungal operational taxonomic units and abundance-based coverage estimator were lower than those of dessert grasslands and shrubland plots and had significant correlations with pH, electric conductivity, and available phosphorus and potassium. The dominant phyla strongly correlated with soil physicochemical properties. Concomitantly, the relative abundance of Glomeromycota was significantly lower, and the complexity of the network in the land conversion plots was lower than that in the shrubland plots. In the late stage of land conversion (September), soil fungal operational taxonomic units and abundance-based coverage estimator were lower in the conversion plots than in the desert grassland plots, with more complex network relationships compared to the desert grassland or shrubland plots. Symbiotrophic groups, a functional group of desert grassland soil fungi, can be used as a predictor of environmental change; in addition, land conversion decreases the relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal functional groups. Our study highlights the response of soil fungal communities and functions to human disturbances in desert grasslands. Considering the potential of land conversion to agriculture to influence soil secondary salinization, there is a need for continued observation of soil ecological health over the time continuum of land conversion to agriculture.

Assessing open-pit mining impacts on semi-arid grassland: A framework for boundary and intensity quantification

Coal mining in northern China's grasslands faces significant environmental challenges due to the fragile semi-arid ecosystem and the abundance of mineral resources. However, current research lacks clarity in both theoretical understanding and effective quantification of its impacts. Insufficient distinction between direct and indirect environmental effects, the oversight of interactions from neighboring activities, and inaccurate measurements of impact intensity all hinder a comprehensive understanding. These limitations also prevent the precise delineation of ecological protection compensation areas. In this study, we developed a comprehensive framework utilizing Landsat time-series images (1989–2017) and field sampling data (228 sample locations in 2017) to assess the boundaries and intensities of mining impacts. First, the k-means clustering algorithm was applied to identify the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series trajectories and map the spatial information of direct impacts. Then, a buffer zone was established and an amplitude model was proposed for determined the cross-impacts and their intensities based on the volatility of NDVI trajectories. Accordingly, a Trend-thresholds model was proposed to automatically extract the indirect impacts boundary of mining-dominated on vegetation under varying intensities. The Soil Quality Index (SQI) ∼ distance curves were fitted and a derivative model was employed for determine the boundary of indirect impacted on soil. We applied this assess framework in Baorixile coalfield (i.e., Baorixile coal mine (BM), DongMing coal mine (DM), Shunxing coal mine (SX)) a typical semi-arid grassland mining area, and quantified three types of impacts: direct, indirect, and cross-impacts. Findings reveal negative coal mining impacts primarily confined to permitted mining areas and decreasing over time. Direct impacts boundary limited in the mining sites and its impact intensity shows a dual nature, with a negative weakening and a positive strengthening trend. Widespread negative indirect impacts exist outward the mining area displays spatial heterogeneity, and its intensity attenuation with distances. In there, the very severe effect (D1) is predominantly focusing on the grassland where near by the mining work face (BM maximum range 1.2 km, DM maximum range 0.55 km, SX maximum range 0.4 km). Moreover, our study indicated that vegetation and soil exhibited consistent responses to coal mining impacts within 1 km, demonstrating the feasibility of using remote sensing data to qualify the impact boundary on the grassland environment. Besides, we further identify significant cross-impacts surrounding the mining areas, characterized by strong negative effects, particularly in the southeastern region of BM. This research offers valuable insights for effective ecological compensation governance and scientific environmental management in similar global contexts.

Drought and nitrogen deposition regulate plant nutrient resorption in a typical steppe

The impending rise in drought events in grasslands of northern China over the next few decades, coupled with escalating nitrogen (N) deposition, will have an important impact on nutrient resorption. Previous research has mostly focused on examining the individual effect of specific drought scenario or N enrichment on nutrient resorption. Nonetheless, the impacts of different drought regimes on the resorption of nutrients have rarely been distinguished, especially under the scenario of N enrichment in temperate typical steppe in Inner Mongolia, we studied how intense drought (excluding 100 % rainfall in June), chronic drought (excluding 50 % rainfall during June-August), reduced rainfall frequency (reducing half rainfall events without changing rainfall amount in June-August), and N deposition (0 and 10 g N m−2 yr−1) affected the efficiency of plants in reabsorbing N and phosphorus (P). Both intense and chronic drought significantly reduced N (by 9.41 % and 9.53 %, respectively) and P resorption efficiency (by 6.71 % and 6.62 %, respectively) in plant communities (defined as the proportion of N and P nutrient resorption from senescing leaves), however reducing rainfall frequency had less effects on plant community N and P resorption efficiency. Nitrogen deposition had no effects on N and P resorption efficiency. Drought and N addition interacted to affect plant community P resorption efficiency. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that drought reduced N and P resorption efficiencies in plant communities by directly decreasing soil moisture, suppressing nutrient concentrations in green leaves, and enhancing soil nutrient content. Nitrogen deposition reduced P resorption efficiency by reducing P concentration in green leaves, but this effect was offset by the reduction of soil P availability. These results imply that rainfall amount is more important than rainfall frequency in determining the nutrient resorption efficiency of plant communities in the typical steppe. This study highlights the importance of soil water and N availabilities as well as nutrient concentrations in green leaves in modulating the responses of plant nutrient resorption to global change in the typical steppe.

Distinct variations of soil infiltrability of contrasting root types in a temperate mosaic-pattern grassland in northern China

Soil infiltration capacity is an important factor affecting soil moisture, and is of great significance to plant growth and groundwater recharge in arid and semiarid areas. Patchiness of grasslands widely exist and have a crucial effect on hydrological processes in water-limited regions. This study investigated soil infiltrability under natural grasslands with patchy mosaic patterns based on a series of in-situ tests. Two dominated natural restoration vegetation communities (Bothriochloa ischaemum (B. ischaemum) with fibrous root systems and Artemisia gmelinii (A. gmelinii) with tap root systems) and abandoned land (as control) were selected in the loess hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau, China. The results showed that natural restoration grasslands significantly improved soil infiltrability in both plant and bare patches, and the emergence of patchy mosaic patterns can result in infiltration heterogeneity to redistribute water on a hillslope scale. Compared to B. ischaemum, A. gmelinii are more likely to facilitate the formation of preferential flow, contributing to the increased soil infiltration rates. The initial, steady and average infiltration rates (IIR, SIR, and AIR, respectively) and soil infiltration capacity index (SIC) were all negatively correlated with both root length density (RLD) and root surface area density (RSAD) of fine roots (diameter < 2 mm) but positively correlated with those of coarse roots (diameter ≥ 2 mm). The main factors influencing the infiltration capacity were the mean weight diameter in the 10−20 cm layer and the RSAD of the fine roots in the 0−20 cm layer, which can explain 98.6 %, 81.7 %, 63.9 %, and 91.3 % of the total variance of IIR, SIR, AIR, and SIC, respectively. This work highlights the important roles of patchy mosaic patterns in affecting soil water redistribution and the stabilization of ecological systems, providing a scientific basis for vegetation selection in the process of vegetation restoration in water-limited regions.

How do short-term and long-term factors impact the aboveground biomass of grassland in Northern China?

The aboveground biomass (AGB) of grassland, a crucial indicator of productivity, is anticipated to widespread changes in key ecosystem attributes, functions and dynamics. Variations in grassland AGB have been extensively documented across various spatial and temporal scales. However, a precise method to disentangle long-term effects from short-term effects on grassland AGB and assess the attribution of explanatory factors for AGB change remains elusive. This study aimed to quantify the impact of key climatic factors, soil properties, and grazing intensity on grassland AGB changes, utilizing data spanning the 1980s and the 2000s in Northern China. The Co-regression model was explored to separate the long-term effects and short-term effects of grassland AGB, while the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was utilized to analyze the contributions of key variables to AGB. This approach effectively avoids issues related to regression to the mean and mathematical coupling. The results revealed that the influence of climatic variables, soil texture and grazing intensity on grassland AGB changes could be decomposed into long-term, short-term and random effects. Long-term effects explained 73.6% of AGB variation, whereas short-term effect only accounted for 5.9% of AGB change. Additionally, the short-term effect was divided into direct and indirect effects, with the direct effect explaining 1.3% of AGB variation, and the indirect effect explained 4.6% of AGB dynamics. The relative importance of key variables in grassland AGB was assessed, identifying soil parameters and precipitation as the main driving factors in the study area. This study introduces a robust methodology to enhance model performance in distinguishing long-term and short-term effects on grassland AGB, contributing to the sustainable development of grassland ecology in similar regions.

Variation in and Regulation of Carbon Use Efficiency of Grassland Ecosystem in Northern China

Ecosystem carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a key parameter in the carbon cycling of terrestrial ecosystems. The magnitude of CUE reflects the ecosystem’s potential for CO2 sequestration. China’s grasslands play an important role in the carbon cycle. Here, we aimed to investigate the comparation of CUE and its environmental regulation among different grassland in Northern China based on eddy covariance carbon fluxes measurements of 31 grassland sites. The results showed that the average CUE of grassland in Northern China was 0.05 ± 0.22, with a range from −0.42 to 0.66. It was demonstrated that there were significant differences in CUE among different grassland types, and CUE values were ranked by type as follows: alpine grassland &gt; temperate meadow steppe &gt; temperate typical steppe &gt; temperate desert steppe, driven by a combination of climatic, soil, and biological factors, with net ecosystem productivity (NEP) having the greatest impact on them. Except for meadow steppes, moisture had a greater impact on grassland CUE in Northern China than temperature. While temperate desert grassland CUE decreased with increasing soil water content (SWC), the CUE of other grassland types increased with higher precipitation and SWC. These findings will advance our ability to predict future grassland ecosystem carbon cycle scenarios.

Effects of enclosure measures on soil water infiltration and evaporation in arid and semi-arid grassland in northern China

Effects of enclosure measures on soil water infiltration and evaporation in arid and semi-arid grassland in northern China

Short-term grazing diminished ecosystem multifunctionality of grassland in northern China

Short-term grazing diminished ecosystem multifunctionality of grassland in northern China

Mowing increased community stability in semiarid grasslands more than either fencing or grazing.

A substantial body of empirical evidence suggests that anthropogenic disturbance can affect the structure and function of grassland ecosystems. Despite this, few studies have elucidated the mechanisms through which grazing and mowing, the two most widespread land management practices, affect the stability of natural grassland communities. In this study, we draw upon 9 years of field data from natural grasslands in northern China to investigate the effects of gazing and mowing on community stability, specifically focusing on community aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and dominance, which are two major biodiversity mechanisms known to characterize community fluctuations. We found that both grazing and mowing reduced ANPP in comparison to areas enclosed by fencing. Grazing reduced community stability by increasing the likelihood of single-species dominance and decreasing the relative proportion of nondominant species. In contrast, mowing reduced the productivity of the dominant species but increased the productivity of nondominant species. As a consequence, mowing improved the overall community stability by increasing the stability of nondominant species. Our study provides novel insight into understanding of the relationship between community species fluctuation-stability, with implications for ecological research and ecosystem management in natural grasslands.

Study on Carbon Stock and Sequestration Potential of Typical Grasslands in Northern China: A Case Study of Wuchuan County

Grasslands in China cover an extensive area and rank second globally. They constitute the second-largest carbon reservoir in China after forests, holding about 8% of the total carbon stock of the world’s grassland ecosystems. This study focuses on the grasslands of Wuchuan County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of Northern China. This study compares the carbon stock and density characteristics across different communities based on plot survey and GIS vector data. It also anticipates the region’s carbon sequestration potential using biomass-to-carbon conversion and extrapolation methods. The findings indicate that (1) the total carbon stock in the study area is 1805.65 × 104 tons with an average carbon density of 77.50 t/ha. The distribution of carbon density and stock follows a pattern: soil layer &gt; herbaceous layer &gt; litter layer; (2) the Stipa krylovii + Leymus chinensis community exhibits the highest carbon stock and density; (3) there is a positive correlation between herbaceous carbon density and NPP (Net Primary Productivity) values in the study area; and (4) the overall carbon stock in the region is projected to increase, with growth rates accelerating annually. These results contribute to our understanding of the formation, turnover, stability maintenance, and regulation mechanisms of grassland soil organic carbon. Furthermore, they hold significant implications for enhancing the carbon sequestration capacity of ecosystems.

Below‐ground root nutrient‐acquisition strategies are more sensitive to long‐term grazing than above‐ground leaf traits across a soil nutrient gradient

Abstract Understanding how plant nutrient acquisition strategies respond to grazing at the community level is critical understanding ecosystem structure and functioning in grasslands. However, few studies have simultaneously compared the difference in above‐ground (leaf) and below‐ground (root) nutrient‐acquisition strategies in response to long‐term grazing, especially at the regional scale. Here, we measured a set of leaf and fine‐root traits that correspond to the fast‐slow economic spectrum at the community level in 10 experimental sites from paired grazed and ungrazed grasslands across a soil nutrient gradient covering three major types of grasslands in northern China. We found that patterns of variations of leaf and fine‐root traits were consistent with both a leaf and root economic spectrum at the community level for both grazed and non‐grazed plots. Grazing had minor effect on community‐level leaf nutrient‐acquisition strategies but strongly influenced community‐level root nutrient‐acquisition strategies. Specifically, root nutrient‐acquisition strategies were shifted to more exploitative resource use in grazed communities. Moreover, soil nutrient contributed to the changes in both leaf and root nutrient‐acquisition strategies, which tended towards a more resource acquisition strategy with increasing soil nutrient levels. Grazing significantly interacted with soil nutrient to affect root nutrient‐acquisition strategies, and grazing contributed more to root nutrient‐acquisition strategies than soil nutrient. Synthesis. Our results demonstrated completely inconsistent responses of community‐level above‐ and below‐ground resource acquisition strategies to long‐term grazing, and below‐ground acquisition strategies were more sensitive to long‐term grazing. Our findings also suggest that high intensity anthropogenic activities such as grazing may strongly modify below‐ground resource acquisition strategies. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Grazing increases the positive feedback of legumes while decreasing the negative feedback of grass

AbstractHerbivore grazing affects plant growth and community structure in grasslands. This effect could be directly through foraging and dung/urine return or indirectly through plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs). Addressing the grazing effect on the feedback of plants can explicate the causes of community changes in the grazing system. However, how grazing and PSF interact to affect plant growth remains unclear. Here, we conducted a classic PSF experiment. In the conditioning stage, two native plant species (a grass Bromus inermis and a legume Medicago sativa) were planted in the field with four simulated grazing treatments (ambient, mowing, dung/urine addition, and mowing + dung/urine addition) in a meadow grassland of northern China. In the feedback stage, B. inermis and M. sativa were planted in the soils (both unsterilized and sterilized) from each treatment in the field experiment. Plant biomass of M. sativa showed positive feedback while B. inermis showed negative feedback across all the simulated grazing treatments. Simulated grazing (mowing and dung/urine addition) increased the positive feedback of M. sativa, while decreasing the negative feedback of B. inermis. The addition of dung/urine to the soil was found to have a significantly stronger impact on plant growth feedback compared to the effect of mowing. Dung/urine addition enriches the soil with higher levels of available nitrogen and phosphorus. Our results suggested that legume plants should have positive PSFs while grass should have negative feedback, which might be amplified by grazing because of the dung/urine fertilization effect. Our study improves the understanding of PSF effects on plant growth and community change in grazed grassland.

Dynamic Snow Melting Process and Its Driving Factors in Northern Grasslands

Hourly automatic snow depth stations have enhanced insights into the dynamics and spatial variability of daily snowmelt. From 2021 to 2022, we gathered hourly snow depth measurements from six Hulun Buir grassland stations. Our analysis shed light on the dynamics of snowmelt and the key drivers in this northern region. We found that in northern China’s mid-high latitude grasslands, winter snow cover persists for about 80 to 134 days. The transition to the melting phase in early March spans 5 to 12 days, with continuous and rapid phases. Snow under 3 cm quickly collapses. If the average temperature from 10:00 to 18:00 exceeds 0 °C, complete melting occurs within 36 h. Daily snow melting sees initial stability, swift decline, and gradual reduction, peaking between 11:00 and 14:00. Finally, thermal conditions primarily drive snow melt dynamics, with 14:00 ground temperature being pivotal. These findings shed light on snow dynamics and key factors in the mid-high latitude grasslands of northern China.

Soil phosphorus availability affects niche characteristics of dominant C3 perennial and sub-dominant C4 annual species in a typical temperate grassland of northern China

Soil phosphorus availability affects niche characteristics of dominant C3 perennial and sub-dominant C4 annual species in a typical temperate grassland of northern China

Defoliation, trampling and nutrient return differentially influence grassland productivity by modulating trait-dependent plant community composition: insights from a simulated grazing experiment.

Ungulate grazing involves multiple components, including defoliation, dung and urine return, and trampling, which supply offsetting or synergistic effects on plant community composition and productivity (ANPP), but these effects have not been fully studied. Plant functional traits may reflect the response of plants to disturbance and their impact on ecosystem functions. Species turnover and intraspecific trait variation (ITV) are important drivers of community trait composition. We conducted a simulated grazing experiment in a steppe grassland in northern China to examine the effects of defoliation, dung and urine return, and trampling on community-weighted mean (CWM), functional diversity (FD) and ANPP, and to disentangle the roles of species turnover and ITV in driving these changes. We found that defoliation had a dominant effect on CWMs and FDs of all four traits through species turnover and ITV, respectively, resulting in a convergence of traits towards as more resource-acquisitive strategy. Dung-urine return resulted in more resource-acquisitive community traits mainly through ITV, whereas there were no significant effects on FDs except for leaf C/N. Trampling increased CWM of leaf dry matter content primarily driven by ITV, and had no significant effect on FDs. Furthermore, our simulated grazing positively affected ANPP, primarily due to nutrient additions from dung and urine, and ITV largely explained the variation in ANPP. These findings highlight the multifaceted effects of grazing components on community structure and ANPP, and the significance of ITV in shaping grassland plant communities and productivity.

Nutrients addition decreases soil fungal diversity and alters fungal guilds and co-occurrence networks in a semi-arid grassland in northern China

Anthropogenic eutrophication is known to impair the diversity and stability of aboveground community, but its effects on the diversity, composition and stability of belowground ecosystems are not yet fully understood. In this study, we conducted a 9-year nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition experiment in a semi-arid grassland of Northern China to elucidate the impacts of nutrients addition on soil fungal diversity, functional guilds, and co-occurrence networks. The results showed that N addition significantly decreased soil fungal diversity and altered fungal community composition, whereas P addition had no impact on them. The relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and leaf_saprotroph were reduced by N and P addition, but P addition enhanced the abundance of saprotrophic fungi. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that N addition destabilized fungal network complexity and stability, while P addition slightly increased the network complexity. Additionally, the network analysis of N × P interaction revealed that P addition mitigated negative effects of N addition on network complexity and stability. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results suggested that nutrients addition directly or indirectly influenced the fungal community structure through the loss of plant richness and the increase of perennial grass biomass. These findings indicate that in comparison to P addition, N addition exhibits a pronounced negative effect on soil fungal communities. Our findings also suggest that changes in plant functional groups under nutrients deposition are pivotal in shaping soil fungal community structure in semi-arid grassland and highlight the need for a better understanding of the belowground ecosystem dynamics.

Later-melting rather than thickening of snowpack enhance the productivity and alter the community composition of temperate grassland

Snowpack is closely related to vegetation green-up in water-limited ecosystems, and has effects on growing-season ecosystem processes. However, we know little about how changes in snowpack depth and melting timing affect primary productivity and plant community structure during the growing season. Here, we conducted a four-year snow manipulation experiment exploring how snow addition, snowmelt delay and their combination affect aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), species diversity, community composition and plant reproductive phenology in seasonally snow-covered temperate grassland in northern China. Snow addition alone increased soil moisture and nutrient availability during early spring, while did not change plant community structure and ANPP. Instead, snowmelt delay alone postponed plant reproductive phenology, and increased ANPP, decreased species diversity and altered species composition. Grasses are more sensitive to changes in snowmelt timing than forbs, and early-flowering forbs showed a higher sensitivity compared to late-flowering forbs. The effect of snowmelt delay on ANPP and species diversity was offset by snow addition, probably because the added snow unnecessarily lengthens the snow-covering duration. The disparate effects of changes in snowpack depth and snowmelt timing necessitate their discrimination for more mechanistic understanding on the effects of snowpack changes on ecosystems. Our study suggests that it is essential to incorporate non-growing-season climate change events (in particular, snowfall and snowpack changes) to comprehensively disclose the effects of climate change on community structure and ecosystem functions.

Chronic drought decreased organic carbon content in topsoil greater than intense drought across grasslands in Northern China

Grasslands are expected to experience extreme climatic events such as extreme drought due to rising global temperatures. However, we still lack evidence of how extreme drought influence soil organic carbon (SOC) content in grassland ecosystems. We experimentally imposed extreme drought in two ways – chronic drought (66 % reduction in precipitation from May to August) and intense drought (100 % reduction in precipitation from June to July) to measure the effects of these two drought types on (SOC) content across six grassland sites that spanning desert steppe, typical steppe and meadow steppe in northern China. The experiment followed a randomized complete block design with six replicates of each treatment at each site. Our results showed that both chronic and intense drought decreased SOC content in the topsoil (0–10 cm) and the loss was higher in arid grasslands (desert steppe and typical steppe). Chronic drought decreased SOC content more than intense drought, with the effect again being strongest in arid grasslands. Furthermore, the response of SOC content to extreme drought was linked with the response of net primary productivity. Specifically, the response of SOC content was negatively correlated with drought sensitivity of above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) but positively correlated with drought sensitivity of belowground NPP (BNPP). Overall, our results suggest that shifts in grassland SOC content with future drought will depend on the types of drought as well as the productivity responses and local climatic conditions such as precipitation, temperature, and aridity. The differential extreme drought impacts described here may facilitate predictions of climate change impacts on ecosystem carbon cycling.