Abstract
Understanding how cool-season C3 and warm-season C4 grasses will respond to climate change is critical for predicting future ecosystem functioning in many grasslands. With warming, C4 grasses are expected to increase relative to C3 grasses, but alterations in the seasonal availability of water may also influence C3/C4 dynamics because of their distinct seasons of growth. To better understand how shifts in the seasonal availability of water can affect ecosystem function in a northern mixed-grass prairie in southeastern Wyoming, we reduced early season rainfall (April–June) using rainout shelters and added the amount of excluded precipitation later in the growing season (July–September), effectively shifting spring rainfall to summer rainfall. As expected, this shift in precipitation seasonality altered patterns of soil water availability, leading to a 29% increase in soil respiration and sustained canopy greenness throughout the growing season. Despite these responses, there were no significant differences in C3 aboveground net primary production (ANPP) between the seasonally shifted treatment and the plots that received ambient precipitation, likely due to the high levels of spring soil moisture present before rainout shelters were deployed that sustained C3 grass growth. However, in plots with high C4 grass cover, C4 ANPP increased significantly in response to increased summer rainfall. Overall, we provide the first experimental evidence that shifts in the seasonality of precipitation, with no change in temperature, will differentially impact C3 versus C4 species, altering the dynamics of carbon cycling in this geographically extensive semi-arid grassland.
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Data Availability
Experiment data are available via Dryad (https://datadryad.org/stash, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s4mw6m99r). All climate data are publicly available at NOAA’s National Climate Data Center (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/) and the PRISM Climate Data website (www.prism.oregonstate.edu/).
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Acknowledgements
We thank Benjamin Miller and William Harley for assistance with the experimental setup and Kathy Condon, Maggie Ross, Ian Richardson, and Melinda Smith for their help with data collection. We also thank the USDA-ARS High Plains Research Station for providing the space and logistical support with extra thanks to Justin Derner and Matt Mortenson. This work was partially supported by the Stavros Family Fund from the Department of Biology at Colorado State University, the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University, and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Award (NIFA #2018-67019-27849).
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Hajek, O.L., Sturchio, M.A. & Knapp, A.K. Experimental Evidence Supporting the Seasonal Availability of Water Hypothesis in a Mixed C3/C4 Grassland. Ecosystems 27, 414–427 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00896-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00896-4