Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian rangelands

Juan J. Gaitán; Donaldo Bran; Gabriel Oliva; Fernando T. Maestre; Martín R. Aguiar; Esteban Jobbagy; Gustavo Buono; Daniela Ferrante; Viviana Nakamatsu; Georgina Ciari; Jorge Salomone; Virginia Massara

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2014.0673

Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian rangelands

Juan J. Gaitán^*, Donaldo Bran, Gabriel Oliva, Fernando T. Maestre, Martín R. Aguiar, Esteban Jobbagy, Gustavo Buono, Daniela Ferrante, Viviana Nakamatsu, Georgina Ciari, Jorge Salomone, Virginia Massara

^*Corresponding author for this work

Environmental Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Drought is an increasingly common phenomenon in drylands as a consequence of climate change. We used 311 sites across a broad range of environmental conditions in Patagonian rangelands to evaluate how drought severity and temperature (abiotic factors) and vegetation structure (biotic factors) modulate the impact of a drought event on the annual integral of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI-I), our surrogate of ecosystem functioning. We found that NDVI-I decreases were larger with both increasing drought severity and temperature. Plant species richness (SR) and shrub cover (SC) attenuated the effects of drought on NDVI-I. Grass cover did not affect the impacts of drought on NDVI-I. Our results suggest that warming and species loss, two important imprints of global environmental change, could increase the vulnerability of Patagonian ecosystems to drought. Therefore, maintaining SR through appropriate grazing management can attenuate the adverse effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	20140673
Journal	Biology Letters
Volume	10
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0673
State	Published - Oct 1 2014

Keywords

Drylands
Ecosystem services
Grass cover

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1098/rsbl.2014.0673

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title = "Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian rangelands",

abstract = "Drought is an increasingly common phenomenon in drylands as a consequence of climate change. We used 311 sites across a broad range of environmental conditions in Patagonian rangelands to evaluate how drought severity and temperature (abiotic factors) and vegetation structure (biotic factors) modulate the impact of a drought event on the annual integral of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI-I), our surrogate of ecosystem functioning. We found that NDVI-I decreases were larger with both increasing drought severity and temperature. Plant species richness (SR) and shrub cover (SC) attenuated the effects of drought on NDVI-I. Grass cover did not affect the impacts of drought on NDVI-I. Our results suggest that warming and species loss, two important imprints of global environmental change, could increase the vulnerability of Patagonian ecosystems to drought. Therefore, maintaining SR through appropriate grazing management can attenuate the adverse effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning.",

keywords = "Drylands, Ecosystem services, Grass cover",

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year = "2014",

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doi = "10.1098/rsbl.2014.0673",

language = "English (US)",

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T1 - Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian rangelands

AU - Gaitán, Juan J.

AU - Bran, Donaldo

AU - Oliva, Gabriel

AU - Maestre, Fernando T.

AU - Aguiar, Martín R.

AU - Jobbagy, Esteban

AU - Buono, Gustavo

AU - Ferrante, Daniela

AU - Nakamatsu, Viviana

AU - Ciari, Georgina

AU - Salomone, Jorge

AU - Massara, Virginia

PY - 2014/10/1

Y1 - 2014/10/1

N2 - Drought is an increasingly common phenomenon in drylands as a consequence of climate change. We used 311 sites across a broad range of environmental conditions in Patagonian rangelands to evaluate how drought severity and temperature (abiotic factors) and vegetation structure (biotic factors) modulate the impact of a drought event on the annual integral of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI-I), our surrogate of ecosystem functioning. We found that NDVI-I decreases were larger with both increasing drought severity and temperature. Plant species richness (SR) and shrub cover (SC) attenuated the effects of drought on NDVI-I. Grass cover did not affect the impacts of drought on NDVI-I. Our results suggest that warming and species loss, two important imprints of global environmental change, could increase the vulnerability of Patagonian ecosystems to drought. Therefore, maintaining SR through appropriate grazing management can attenuate the adverse effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning.

AB - Drought is an increasingly common phenomenon in drylands as a consequence of climate change. We used 311 sites across a broad range of environmental conditions in Patagonian rangelands to evaluate how drought severity and temperature (abiotic factors) and vegetation structure (biotic factors) modulate the impact of a drought event on the annual integral of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI-I), our surrogate of ecosystem functioning. We found that NDVI-I decreases were larger with both increasing drought severity and temperature. Plant species richness (SR) and shrub cover (SC) attenuated the effects of drought on NDVI-I. Grass cover did not affect the impacts of drought on NDVI-I. Our results suggest that warming and species loss, two important imprints of global environmental change, could increase the vulnerability of Patagonian ecosystems to drought. Therefore, maintaining SR through appropriate grazing management can attenuate the adverse effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning.

KW - Drylands

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Grass cover

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SN - 1744-9561

VL - 10

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ER -

Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian rangelands

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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