Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s
Language English Country Great Britain, England Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article
PubMed
39103674
DOI
10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x
PII: 10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- MeSH
- Biodiversity MeSH
- Biomass * MeSH
- Climate Change MeSH
- Grassland * MeSH
- Seasons MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Global change is associated with variable shifts in the annual production of aboveground plant biomass, suggesting localized sensitivities with unclear causal origins. Combining remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index data since the 1980s with contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents, we show a widening divergence in site-level biomass ranging from +51% to -34% globally. Biomass generally increased in warmer, wetter and species-rich sites with longer growing seasons and declined in species-poor arid areas. Phenological changes were widespread, revealing substantive transitions in grassland seasonal cycling. Grazing, nitrogen deposition and plant invasion were prevalent in some regions but did not predict overall trends. Grasslands are undergoing sizable changes in production, with implications for food security, biodiversity and carbon storage especially in arid regions where declines are accelerating.
Archbold Biological Station Venus FL USA
Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science Clemson University Clemson SC USA
Centre for Applied Ecology School of Agriculture University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal
Centre for Ecological Sciences Indian Institute of Science Bangalore India
Chair of Biodiversity and Nature Tourism Estonian University of Life Sciences Tartu Estonia
College of Ecology Lanzhou University Lanzhou China
College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology Lanzhou University Lanzhou China
CSIRO Environment Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia
Department of Biological Sciences Michigan Technological University Houghton MI USA
Department of Biological Sciences Texas Tech University Lubbock TX USA
Department of Biological Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough Toronto Ontario Canada
Department of Biology and Animal Sciences Sao Paulo State University UNESP Ilha Solteira Brazil
Department of Biology Boston University Boston MA USA
Department of Biology National University of Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mongolia
Department of Biology Texas State University San Marcos TX USA
Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM USA
Department of Biology Wake Forest University Winston Salem NC USA
Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Umeå University Umeå Sweden
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Colorado Boulder CO USA
Department of Ecology and Genetics University of Oulu Oulu Finland
Department of Ecology Evolution and Behavior University of Minnesota Saint Paul MN USA
Department of Ecology Evolution and Organismal Biology Iowa State University Ames IA USA
Department of Entomology University of Maryland College Park MD USA
Department of Environment and Genetics La Trobe University Bundoora Victoria Australia
Department of Environmental Science and Policy Marist College Poughkeepsie NY USA
Department of Geography King's College London London UK
Department of Health and Environmental Sciences Jiatong Liverpool University Suzhou China
Department of Integrative Biology University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada
Department of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX USA
Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Montana State University Bozeman MT USA
Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Ascot UK
Department of Natural Sciences Northeastern State University Tahlequah OK USA
Department of Plant Agriculture University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences University of Kentucky Lexington KY USA
Department of Terrestrial Ecology Netherlands Institute of Ecology Wageningen The Netherlands
Department of Zoology and Entomology University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa
Department of Zoology School of Natural Sciences Trinity College Dublin Dublin Ireland
Division of Biological Sciences University of California San Diego San Diego CA USA
Ecology and Biodiversity Group Department of Biology Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences Agricultural University of Iceland Reykjavik Iceland
Forest Research Centre School of Agriculture University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig Germany
Gulbali Institute Charles Sturt University Albury New South Wales Australia
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University Penrith New South Wales Australia
IFEVA Facultad de Agronomía Universidad de Buenos Aires CONICET Buenos Aires Argentina
Institute of Biology Leipzig University Leipzig Germany
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Tartu Estonia
Institute of Ecology College of Urban and Environmental Science Peking University Beijing China
Institute of Ecology Leuphana University of Lüneburg Lüneburg Germany
Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras FCEyN UNMdP CONICET Mar del Plata Argentina
INTA UNPA CONICET Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Rìo Gallegos Argentina
Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK
Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Halle Germany
Murdoch University Perth Western Australia Australia
School of Biological Sciences Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
School of Earth and Sustainability Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences University of Washington Seattle WA USA
School of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Sydney Camperdown New South Wales Australia
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf Switzerland
University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls IA USA
USDA ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory Temple TX USA
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