Data from: Elevated CO2 and water addition enhance nitrogen turnover in grassland plants with implications for temporal stability

Temporal variation in soil nitrogen (N) availability affects growth of
grassland communities that differ in their use and reuse of N. In a
seven-year-long climate change experiment in a semiarid grassland, the
temporal stability of plant biomass production varied with plant N
turnover (reliance on externally acquired N relative to internally
recycled N). Species with high N turnover were less stable in time
compared to species with low N turnover. In contrast, N turnover at the
community level was positively associated with asynchrony in biomass
production, which in turn increased community temporal stability. Elevated
CO2 and summer irrigation, but not warming, enhanced community N turnover
and stability, possibly because treatments promoted greater abundance of
species with high N turnover. Our study highlights the importance of plant
N turnover for determining the temporal stability of individual species
and plant communities affected by climate change.