Rapid shifts in grassland communities driven by climate change

Many terrestrial plant communities, especially forests, have been shown to lag in response to rapid climate change. Grassland communities may respond more quickly to novel climates, as they consist mostly of short-lived species, which are directly exposed to macroclimate change. Here we report the rapid response of grassland communities to climate change in the California Floristic Province. We estimated 349 vascular plant species' climatic niches from 829,337 occurrence records, compiled 15 long-term community composition datasets from 12 observational studies and 3 global change experiments, and analysed community compositional shifts in the climate niche space. We show that communities experienced significant shifts towards species associated with warmer and drier locations at rates of 0.0216 ± 0.00592 °C yr<sup>-</sup><sup>1</sup> (mean ± s.e.) and -3.04 ± 0.742 mm yr<sup>-</sup><sup>1</sup>, and these changes occurred at a pace similar to that of climate warming and drying. These directional shifts were consistent across observations and experiments. Our findings contrast with the lagged responses observed in communities dominated by long-lived plants and suggest greater biodiversity changes than expected in the near future.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Published
2024-10-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02552-z
Citations
49
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
33.86
Controls
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article

Rapid shifts in grassland communities driven by climate change

Yiluan Song, Josephine C. Lesage, Michele Hammond, Joan Dudney et al.
49 citations
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
33.86
article

Rapid shifts in grassland communities driven by climate change

Yiluan Song, Josephine C. Lesage, Michele Hammond, Joan Dudney, Christopher B. Field, Kai Zhu, Laura R. Prugh, Peter Hopkinson, Richard J. Hobbs, Susan Harrison, Justin C. Luong, Michael E. Loik, James W. Bartolome, Loralee Larios, Nona R. Chiariello, Karen D. Holl, Lauren M. Hallett, Grey F. Hayes
article en
49 citations

Abstract

Many terrestrial plant communities, especially forests, have been shown to lag in response to rapid climate change. Grassland communities may respond more quickly to novel climates, as they consist mostly of short-lived species, which are directly exposed to macroclimate change. Here we report the rapid response of grassland communities to climate change in the California Floristic Province. We estimated 349 vascular plant species' climatic niches from 829,337 occurrence records, compiled 15 long-term community composition datasets from 12 observational studies and 3 global change experiments, and analysed community compositional shifts in the climate niche space. We show that communities experienced significant shifts towards species associated with warmer and drier locations at rates of 0.0216 ± 0.00592 °C yr<sup>-</sup><sup>1</sup> (mean ± s.e.) and -3.04 ± 0.742 mm yr<sup>-</sup><sup>1</sup>, and these changes occurred at a pace similar to that of climate warming and drying. These directional shifts were consistent across observations and experiments. Our findings contrast with the lagged responses observed in communities dominated by long-lived plants and suggest greater biodiversity changes than expected in the near future.

Nature Ecology & EvolutionVol. 8(12)
University of California, Riverside (US), Clark College (US), California Polytechnic State University (US), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), The University of Western Australia (AU), University of Oregon (US), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), Cal Poly Humboldt (US), University of Washington (US), University of Michigan (US), Palo Alto Institute (US), Institute for Sustainability (GB), University of California, Davis (US), University of California, Berkeley (US), Stanford University (US)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
33.86
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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