Data from: Nitrogen addition does not reduce the role of spatial asynchrony in stabilizing grassland communities

While nitrogen (N) amendment is known to affect the stability of
ecological communities, whether this effect is scale‐dependent remains an
open question. By conducting a field experiment in a temperate grassland,
we found that both plant richness and temporal stability of community
biomass increased with spatial scale, but N enrichment reduced richness
and stability at the two scales considered. Reduced local‐scale stability
under N enrichment arose from N‐induced reduction in population stability,
which was partly attributable to the decline in local species richness, as
well as reduction in asynchronous local population dynamics across
species. Importantly, N enrichment did not alter spatial asynchrony among
local communities, which provided similar spatial insurance effects at the
larger scale, regardless of N enrichment levels. These results suggest
that spatial variability among local communities, in addition to local
diversity, may help stabilise ecosystems at larger spatial scales even in
the face of anthropogenic environmental changes.