Nonlinear response of productivity to precipitation extremes in the Inner Mongolia grassland

As precipitation (PPT) regimes are becoming more extreme worldwide, our understanding of how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to this aspect of climate change remains unclear. We addressed this research gap by a PPT gradient experiment that included PPT amounts simulating extremely dry and wet years in combination with a long-term (40 years) observational study in a grassland ecosystem. This study illustrates how a grassland responded to greater PPT variability and highlights the role of limiting resource shift in ecosystem responses to climate extremes. Thus, to accurately forecast future ecosystem feedbacks to climate change, we should take into account the negative asymmetric feature of ecosystem response to stronger climate variability.随着全球范围内降水（Precipitation, PPT）格局日益极端化，当前学界对陆地生态系统如何响应气候变化这一维度的认知仍不明确。本研究通过设置模拟极端干旱年与极端湿润年降水水平的降水梯度实验，并结合在草原生态系统中开展的为期40年的长期定位观测研究，填补了这一研究空白。本研究阐明了草原生态系统对降水变异性加剧的响应机制，并凸显了限制性资源动态变化在生态系统应对气候极端事件过程中的关键作用。因此，若要精准预测未来生态系统对气候变化的反馈效应，我们必须将生态系统对更强气候变异性的响应所具备的负不对称特征纳入考量范畴。