Abstract

Effects of plant diversity on grassland productivity, or overyielding, are found to be robust to nutrient enrichment. However, the impact of cumulative nitrogen (N) addition (total N added over time) on overyielding and its drivers are underexplored. Synthesizing data from 15 multi-year grassland biodiversity experiments with N addition, we found that N addition decreases complementarity effects and increases selection effects proportionately, resulting in no overall change in overyielding regardless of N addition rate. However, we observed a convex relationship between overyielding and cumulative N addition, driven by a shift from complementarity to selection effects. This shift suggests diminishing positive interactions and an increasing contribution of a few dominant species with increasing N accumulation. Recognizing the importance of cumulative N addition is vital for understanding its impacts on grassland overyielding, contributing essential insights for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience in the face of increasing N deposition.15 multi-year grassland biodiversity experiments suggest that with increasing cumulative nitrogen addition, the effect of diversity on productivity becomes increasingly reliant on a small number of dominant species rather than on overall species richness.

Published in

Communications biology
2024, Volume: 7, number: 1, article number: 309
Publisher: NATURE PORTFOLIO

SLU Authors

• Palmborg, Cecilia

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-05999-9

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/129281