Community Asynchrony Increased Its Stability by Mediating the Relationship of Diversity–Stability Relationships in Loess Plateau, China

Community Asynchrony Increased Its Stability by Mediating the Relationship of Diversity–Stability Relationships in Loess Plateau, China

Extreme weather such as heavy rainfall and drought are threatening the global grassland and its potential to mitigate climate change. Therefore, understanding the drivers that promote the stability of grassland ecosystems is considered to be critical to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on grasslands. Here, we use precipitation addition (PA) + grazing experiment to explain how species richness, aboveground biomass, species asynchrony, functional group level stability, drought tolerance and grazing tolerance can maintain grassland productivity stability. The results showed that grazing counteracted the promoting effect of rainfall on vegetation to a certain extent, and weakened the sensitivity of species of grazing tolerant functional group to rainfall. Rainfall and grazing affect the asynchrony of the community through the influence of drought tolerance and grazing tolerance functional groups, and then affect the stability of the community through the mediation of the relationship between aboveground biomass and species richness. This effect was significantly correlated with the differences of vegetation characteristics and resource acquisition strategies, but not with the community species richness. This study provides more explanations for the maintenance mechanism of community stability.