Plant Acquisitive Strategies Promote Resistance and Temporal Stability of Semiarid Grasslands
Among ecologists, it is widely believed that conservative growth strategies of plants are crucial for sustaining ecosystem stability, while the potential stabilising role of acquisitive strategies has received little attention. We investigated the relationships between plant traits and three stability dimensions-temporal stability, resistance and resilience-using two complementary datasets from drought-affected semi-arid grasslands: a temporal plant community survey from a single site and a 1000-km transect survey with satellite-derived productivity estimates. We found strikingly consistent patterns from the two datasets, with grasslands dominated by acquisitive strategies exhibiting greater resistance and temporal stability of productivity. Acquisitive strategies enhance stability by facilitating drought escape and avoidance, rather than drought tolerance typically associated with conservative strategies. These results highlight the important but underappreciated role of acquisitive strategies in enhancing ecosystem resistance to disturbances and maintaining temporal stability in semi-arid grasslands.
Authors
- Xian Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1527-7673)
- Yiping Zuo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8216-9544)
- Enrique Valencia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3359-0759)
- Shiqiang Wan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0631-1232)
- Guoyong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0932-4063)
- Marcos Fernández‐Martínez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5661-3610)
- Pu Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5614-9355)
- Lin Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7114-0794)
- Jian Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9957-6533)
- Nianpeng He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0458-5953)
- Hao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1656-0091)
- Shiping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1934-2372)
- Jing Wang
Institutions
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Henan University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Beijing Botanical Garden (CN)
- Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES)
- Institute of Botany (CN)
- Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (CN)
- Hebei University (CN)
- Northeast Forestry University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Ecology Letters
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70110
- Citations
- 21
- Primary Topic
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 48.58
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
- Division of Environmental Biology