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Long-term Oscillations in Grassland Productivity Induced by Drought by Nick M. Haddad; David Tilman; Johannes M. H. Knops is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Long-term Oscillations in Grassland Productivity Induced by Drought about?

Disturbances such as drought have immediate impacts on ecosystem functioning, but little is known about long‐term dynamic consequences of disturbance. Here, we show that a major drought perturbed prairie grassland from nearly constant average annual production, and induced 9 years of oscillations with a 2‐year period. This pattern occurred in unmanipulated plots in many widely separated fields that were part of two different long‐term studies. Using direct and indirect tests, we could reject the hypothesis that the oscillations were externally imposed by climate or herbivores. Weak evidence supported the hypothesis that oscillations were internally generated, caused by a litter and nitrogen dependent feedback on productivity. This hypothesis was supported by the results of two other long‐term studies, in which burning and, separately, nitrogen addition eliminated the 2‐year oscillations in plant production. However, more direct evidence failed to support the litter hypothesis. A final, but untested hypothesis was suggested by the observation that production tended to be synchronized amongst dominant plants. Drought may have synchronized production dynamics amongst plants with bienn

Who reads Long-term Oscillations in Grassland Productivity Induced by Drought?

Author

Nick M. Haddad; David Tilman; Johannes M. H. Knops

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (Blackwell Publishing); Blackwell Publishing Inc.; Wiley (ISSN 1461-023X)

Published

2002

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)