Evidence for long-term shift in plant community composition under decadal experimental warming

Summary: 1. Long-term, slow ecological processes such as changes in plant community structure and composition strongly regulate ecosystem responses to climate change. Shifts in plant community are expected in chronically altered environments under warming. However, experimental evidence for long-term shifts and the associated mechanisms is still scarce in temperate grasslands. 2. Here, we explore the long-term responses of a prairie plant community to 14-year (2000-2013) manipulations of climate warming and clipping in Oklahoma, USA. Infrared heaters were used to elevate soil temperature by about 2 ºC all year round and annual clipping was applied to mimic hay harvest. 3. Community composition was resistant to experimental warming in the first seven years, but started to show responses starting from the eighth year; clipping consistently affected community composition over the years. Compositional change under long-term warming was mainly due to one invasive species and three dominant...