Earlier plant growth helps compensate for reduced carbon fixation after 13 years of warming

1.Drylands play a dominant role in global carbon cycling and are particularly vulnerable to increasing temperatures, but our understanding of how dryland ecosystems will respond to climatic change remains notably poor. Considering that the area of drylands is projected to increase 11–23% by 2100, understanding the impacts of warming on the functions and services furnished by these arid and semiarid ecosystems has numerous implications.

2.In a unique 13‐year ecosystem warming experiment in a southwestern U.S. dryland, we investigated the consequences of rising temperature on Achnatherum hymenoides, a widespread, keystone grass species on the Colorado Plateau. We tracked individual‐ and population‐level responses to identify optimal strategies that may have been masked if considering only one level of plant response.

3.We found several factors combined to affect the timing and magnitude of plant responses during the 13th year of warming. These included large warming‐induced biomass ...