Vegetation resistance and resilience to a decade-long dry period in the temperate grasslands in China

The duration of climate anomalies has been increasing across the globe, leading to ecosystem function loss. Thus, we need to understand the responses of the ecosystem to long-term climate anomalies. It remains unclear how ecosystem resistance and resilience respond to long-term climate anomalies, e.g., continuous dry years at a regional scale. Taking the opportunity of a 13-year dry period in the temperate grasslands in northern China, we quantified the resistance and resilience of the grassland in response to this periodic dry period. We found vegetation resistance to the dry period increased with mean annual precipitation (MAP), while resilience increased at first until at MAP of 250 mm and then decreased slightly. No trade-off between resistance and resilience was detected when MAP < 250 mm. Our results highlight that xeric ecosystems are most vulnerable to the long-term dry period. Given expected increases in drought severity and duration in the coming decades, our findings may b...

全球范围内气候异常的持续时长正不断增加，进而导致生态系统功能损失。因此，我们亟需明晰生态系统对长期气候异常的响应机制。目前尚不清楚生态系统抗性（ecosystem resistance）与恢复力（resilience）如何响应长期气候异常，例如区域尺度上的连续多年干旱。依托中国北方温带草原历时13年的干旱事件契机，我们量化了该草原生态系统对此次周期性干旱的抗性与恢复力。研究发现，植被对干旱事件的抗性随年平均降水量（mean annual precipitation, MAP）升高而增强；而恢复力则先随年平均降水量上升，在年平均降水量达250 mm时达到峰值，随后略微下降。当MAP低于250 mm时，未检测到抗性与恢复力间存在权衡（trade-off）关系。本研究结果凸显，旱生生态系统对长期干旱事件最为脆弱。考虑到未来数十年干旱的强度与持续时长预计将持续增加，本研究结果可为...