Ecosystem CO 2 flux responses to extreme droughts depend on interaction of seasonal timing and plant community composition

作者：Zhenzhen Zheng, Linfeng Li, Joel A. Biederman, Yanfen Wang, Shuntian Guan, Congjia Li, Fuqi Wen, Yuan Liu, Yunqi Xiong, Ruyan Qian, Jianqing Du, Kai Xue, Xiaoyong Cui, Yanbin Hao · 发表于：Journal of Ecology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/1365-2745.14374 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Plant responses to elevated CO2、Climate variability and models

Abstract Droughts can affect ecosystem CO 2 fluxes directly or indirectly by changing plant community composition. However, it is unknown whether shifts in plant community composition buffer or amplify the response of ecosystem CO 2 fluxes to droughts with different seasonal timing, as plant phenology and physiology of the different plant functional types respond differently to droughts. To identify the interaction of drought timing and plant community composition in regulating ecosystem CO 2 fluxes, we conducted a three‐year manipulative experiment in which extreme droughts occurring in the early, mid and late growing seasons were separately imposed on experimental plot communities comprising graminoids, shrubs and their combination in a semi‐arid grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. Overall, mid‐season drought caused the largest negative effects regardless of plant community composition. In addition to decreasing aboveground biomass, mid‐season drought suppressed fluxes by reducing leaf photosynthetic rate, while early‐season and late‐season drought reduced fluxes mainly by shortening growing season length. All three community compositions had consistent responses to early‐season and mid‐season droughts. However, ecosystem CO 2 fluxes in the combination community were less negatively affected by late‐season drought than in either shrub or graminoid communities because the growing season length was shortened less. Synthesis . Our results highlight that it is important to acco...