Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.

Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth’s land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption...

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Main Authors: Spohn, Marie, Bagchi, Sumanta, Bakker, Jonathan D., Borer, Elizabeth T., Carbutt, Clinton, Catford, Jane A., Dickman, Chris R., Eisenhauer, Nico, Eskelinen, Anu, Hagenah, Nicole, Peri, Pablo Luis, Seabloom, Eric William
Format: info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo
Language:Inglés
Published: Springer Nature 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/21813
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-07518-w
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w
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author Spohn, Marie
Bagchi, Sumanta
Bakker, Jonathan D.
Borer, Elizabeth T.
Carbutt, Clinton
Catford, Jane A.
Dickman, Chris R.
Eisenhauer, Nico
Eskelinen, Anu
Hagenah, Nicole
Peri, Pablo Luis
Seabloom, Eric William
author_browse Bagchi, Sumanta
Bakker, Jonathan D.
Borer, Elizabeth T.
Carbutt, Clinton
Catford, Jane A.
Dickman, Chris R.
Eisenhauer, Nico
Eskelinen, Anu
Hagenah, Nicole
Peri, Pablo Luis
Seabloom, Eric William
Spohn, Marie
author_facet Spohn, Marie
Bagchi, Sumanta
Bakker, Jonathan D.
Borer, Elizabeth T.
Carbutt, Clinton
Catford, Jane A.
Dickman, Chris R.
Eisenhauer, Nico
Eskelinen, Anu
Hagenah, Nicole
Peri, Pablo Luis
Seabloom, Eric William
author_sort Spohn, Marie
collection INTA Digital
description Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth’s land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption of linear relationships between plant biomass and the environment and an underestimation of interactions of environmental variables. Using data from 116 grasslands on six continents, we show unimodal relationships between plant biomass and ecosystem characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and soil nitrogen. Further, we found that soil nitrogen and plant diversity interacted in their relationships with plant biomass, such that plant diversity and biomass were positively related at low levels of nitrogen and negatively at elevated levels of nitrogen. Our results show that it is critical to account for the interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass and several environmental variables to accurately include plant biomass in global vegetation and carbon models.
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institution Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA -Argentina)
language Inglés
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher Springer Nature
publisherStr Springer Nature
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spelling INTA218132025-03-26T10:13:34Z Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands. Spohn, Marie Bagchi, Sumanta Bakker, Jonathan D. Borer, Elizabeth T. Carbutt, Clinton Catford, Jane A. Dickman, Chris R. Eisenhauer, Nico Eskelinen, Anu Hagenah, Nicole Peri, Pablo Luis Seabloom, Eric William Pastures Biomass Biodiversity Carbon Capture and Storage Environmental Factors Precipitation Soil Nitrogen Pastizales Biomasa Biodiversidad Captura y Almacenamiento de Carbono Factores Ambientales Precipitación Atmosférica Suelo Nitrógeno Carbon Models Modelos de Carbono Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth’s land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption of linear relationships between plant biomass and the environment and an underestimation of interactions of environmental variables. Using data from 116 grasslands on six continents, we show unimodal relationships between plant biomass and ecosystem characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and soil nitrogen. Further, we found that soil nitrogen and plant diversity interacted in their relationships with plant biomass, such that plant diversity and biomass were positively related at low levels of nitrogen and negatively at elevated levels of nitrogen. Our results show that it is critical to account for the interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass and several environmental variables to accurately include plant biomass in global vegetation and carbon models. EEA Santa Cruz Fil: Spohn, Marie. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Department of Soil and Environment; Suecia Fil: Bagchi, Sumanta. Indian Institute of Science. Centre for Ecological Sciences; India. Fil: Bakker, Jonathan D. University of Washington. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences; Estados Unidos. Fil: Borer, Elizabeth T. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Estados Unidos. Fil: Carbutt, Clinton. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. Scientific Services; Sudáfrica Fil: Carbutt, Clinton. University of KwaZulu-Natal,Scottsville. School of Life Sciences; Sudáfrica. Fil: Catford, Jane A. King’s College London. Dept of Geography; Reino Unido Fil: Catford, Jane A. University of Melbourne. School of Agriculture, Food & Ecosystem Sciences; Australia. Fil: Catford, Jane A. The Australian National University. Fenner School of Environment & Society; Australia. Fil: Dickman, Chris R. University of Sydney. School of Life and Environmental Sciences; Australia. Fil: Eisenhauer, Nico. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv); Alemania Fil: Eisenhauer, Nico. Leipzig University. Institute of Biology; Alemania Fil: Eskelinen, Anu. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Alemania Fil: Eskelinen, Anu. University of Oulu. Ecology & Genetics; Finlandia Fil: Hagenah, Nicole. University of Pretoria. Research Institute. Department of Zoology and Entomology; Sudáfrica Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina. Fil: Seabloom, Eric William. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior; Estados Unidos. 2025-03-26T10:04:43Z 2025-03-26T10:04:43Z 2025-01-21 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/21813 https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-07518-w Spohn M.; Bagchi S.; Bakker J.D.; Borer E.T.; Carbutt C.; Catford J.A.; Dickman C.R.; Eisenhauer N.; Eskelinen A.; Hagenah N.; Hautier Y.; Koerner S.E.; Komatsu K.J.; Laanisto L.; Lekberg Y.; Martina J.P.; Martinson H.; Meelis P.; Peri P.L.; Risch A.C.; Smith N.G.; Stevens C.; Veen G.F.; Virtanen R.; Yahdjian L.; Young A.L.; Young H.S.; Seabloom E.W. (2025) Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands. Communications Biology 8: 97. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w 2399-3642 (online) https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) application/pdf Springer Nature Communications Biology 8 : 97. (January 2025)
spellingShingle Pastures
Biomass
Biodiversity
Carbon Capture and Storage
Environmental Factors
Precipitation
Soil
Nitrogen
Pastizales
Biomasa
Biodiversidad
Captura y Almacenamiento de Carbono
Factores Ambientales
Precipitación Atmosférica
Suelo
Nitrógeno
Carbon Models
Modelos de Carbono
Spohn, Marie
Bagchi, Sumanta
Bakker, Jonathan D.
Borer, Elizabeth T.
Carbutt, Clinton
Catford, Jane A.
Dickman, Chris R.
Eisenhauer, Nico
Eskelinen, Anu
Hagenah, Nicole
Peri, Pablo Luis
Seabloom, Eric William
Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.
title Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.
title_full Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.
title_fullStr Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.
title_full_unstemmed Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.
title_short Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.
title_sort interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass abiotic factors and plant diversity in global grasslands
topic Pastures
Biomass
Biodiversity
Carbon Capture and Storage
Environmental Factors
Precipitation
Soil
Nitrogen
Pastizales
Biomasa
Biodiversidad
Captura y Almacenamiento de Carbono
Factores Ambientales
Precipitación Atmosférica
Suelo
Nitrógeno
Carbon Models
Modelos de Carbono
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/21813
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-07518-w
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w
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