Nonlinear response of productivity to precipitation extremes in the Inner Mongolia grassland

As precipitation (PPT) regimes are becoming more extreme worldwide, our understanding of how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to this aspect of climate change remains unclear. We addressed this research gap by a PPT gradient experiment that included PPT amounts simulating extremely dry and wet years in combination with a long-term (40 years) observational study in a grassland ecosystem. This study illustrates how a grassland responded to greater PPT variability and highlights the role of limiting resource shift in ecosystem responses to climate extremes. Thus, to accurately forecast future ecosystem feedbacks to climate change, we should take into account the negative asymmetric feature of ecosystem response to stronger climate variability.

随着全球范围内降水（Precipitation，简称PPT）格局愈发极端，我们对陆地生态系统如何响应气候变化这一方面的认知仍不明晰。本研究通过设置降水梯度实验，模拟极端干旱与极端湿润年份的降水量水平，并结合在草地生态系统中开展的40年长期观测研究，填补了这一研究空白。本研究阐明了草地生态系统对更强降水变率的响应机制，并凸显了限制性资源迁移在生态系统响应极端气候过程中的关键作用。因此，若要精准预测未来生态系统对气候变化的反馈效应，我们必须将生态系统对更强气候变率的响应具有负非对称性这一特征纳入考量。