Plant community responses to increased precipitation and belowground litter addition: Evidence from a 5-year semiarid grassland experiment

Global climate change is predicted to stimulate primary production and consequently increases litter inputs. Changing precipitation regimes together with enhanced litter inputs may affect plant community composition and structure, with consequent influence on diversity and ecosystem functioning. Responses of plant community to increased precipitation and belowground litter addition were examined lasting 5 years in a semiarid temperate grassland of northeastern China. Increased precipitation enhanced community species richness and abundance of annuals by 16.8% and 44%, but litter addition suppressed them by 25% and 54.5% after 5 years, respectively. During the study period, perennial rhizome grasses and forbs had consistent negative relationship under ambient plots, whereas positive relationship between the two functional groups was found under litter addition plots after 5 years. In addition, increased precipitation and litter addition showed significant interaction on community composition, because litter addition significantly increased biomass and abundance of rhizome grasses under increased precipitation plots but had no effect under ambient precipitation levels. Our findings emphasize the importance of water availability in modulating the responses of plants community to potentially enhanced litter inputs in the semiarid temperate grassland.