Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s

Andrew S. MacDougall; Ellen Esch; Qingqing Chen; Oliver Carroll; Colin Bonner; Timothy Ohlert; Matthias Siewert; John Sulik; Anna K. Schweiger; Elizabeth T. Borer; Dilip Naidu; Sumanta Bagchi; Yann Hautier; Peter Wilfahrt; Keith Larson; Johan Olofsson; Elsa Cleland; Ranjan Muthukrishnan; Lydia O’Halloran; Juan Alberti; T. Michael Anderson; Carlos A. Arnillas; Jonathan D. Bakker; Isabel C. Barrio; Lori Biederman; Elizabeth H. Boughton; Lars A. Brudvig; Martin Bruschetti; Yvonne Buckley; Miguel N. Bugalho; Marc W. Cadotte; Maria C. Caldeira; Jane A. Catford; Carla D’Antonio; Kendi Davies; Pedro Daleo; Christopher R. Dickman; Ian Donohue; Mary Ellyn DuPre; Kenneth Elgersma; Nico Eisenhauer; Anu Eskelinen; Catalina Estrada; Philip A. Fay; Yanhao Feng; Daniel S. Gruner; Nicole Hagenah; Sylvia Haider; W. Stanley Harpole; Erika Hersch-Green; Anke Jentsch; Kevin Kirkman; Johannes M.H. Knops; Lauri Laanisto; Lucíola S. Lannes; Ramesh Laungani; Ariuntsetseg Lkhagva; Petr Macek; Jason P. Martina; Rebecca L. McCulley; Brett Melbourne; Rachel Mitchell; Joslin L. Moore; John W. Morgan; Taofeek O. Muraina; Yujie Niu; Meelis Pärtel; Pablo L. Peri; Sally A. Power; Jodi N. Price; Suzanne M. Prober; Zhengwei Ren; Anita C. Risch; Nicholas G. Smith; Grégory Sonnier; Rachel J. Standish; Carly J. Stevens; Michelle Tedder; Pedro Tognetti; G. F. Veen; Risto Virtanen; Glenda M. Wardle; Elizabeth Waring; Amelia A. Wolf; Laura Yahdjian; Eric W. Seabloom

doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x

Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s

Andrew S. MacDougall, Ellen Esch, Qingqing Chen, Oliver Carroll, Colin Bonner, Timothy Ohlert, Matthias Siewert, John Sulik, Anna K. Schweiger, Elizabeth T. Borer, Dilip Naidu, Sumanta Bagchi, Yann Hautier, Peter Wilfahrt, Keith Larson, Johan Olofsson, Elsa Cleland, Ranjan Muthukrishnan, Lydia O’Halloran, Juan AlbertiT. Michael Anderson, Carlos A. Arnillas, Jonathan D. Bakker, Isabel C. Barrio, Lori Biederman, Elizabeth H. Boughton, Lars A. Brudvig, Martin Bruschetti, Yvonne Buckley, Miguel N. Bugalho, Marc W. Cadotte, Maria C. Caldeira, Jane A. Catford, Carla D’Antonio, Kendi Davies, Pedro Daleo, Christopher R. Dickman, Ian Donohue, Mary Ellyn DuPre, Kenneth Elgersma, Nico Eisenhauer, Anu Eskelinen, Catalina Estrada, Philip A. Fay, Yanhao Feng, Daniel S. Gruner, Nicole Hagenah, Sylvia Haider, W. Stanley Harpole, Erika Hersch-Green, Anke Jentsch, Kevin Kirkman, Johannes M.H. Knops, Lauri Laanisto, Lucíola S. Lannes, Ramesh Laungani, Ariuntsetseg Lkhagva, Petr Macek, Jason P. Martina, Rebecca L. McCulley, Brett Melbourne, Rachel Mitchell, Joslin L. Moore, John W. Morgan, Taofeek O. Muraina, Yujie Niu, Meelis Pärtel, Pablo L. Peri, Sally A. Power, Jodi N. Price, Suzanne M. Prober, Zhengwei Ren, Anita C. Risch, Nicholas G. Smith, Grégory Sonnier, Rachel J. Standish, Carly J. Stevens, Michelle Tedder, Pedro Tognetti, G. F. Veen, Risto Virtanen, Glenda M. Wardle, Elizabeth Waring, Amelia A. Wolf, Laura Yahdjian, Eric W. Seabloom

Plant and Soil Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Global change is associated with variable shifts in the annual production of aboveground plant biomass, suggesting localized sensitivities with unclear causal origins. Combining remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index data since the 1980s with contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents, we show a widening divergence in site-level biomass ranging from +51% to −34% globally. Biomass generally increased in warmer, wetter and species-rich sites with longer growing seasons and declined in species-poor arid areas. Phenological changes were widespread, revealing substantive transitions in grassland seasonal cycling. Grazing, nitrogen deposition and plant invasion were prevalent in some regions but did not predict overall trends. Grasslands are undergoing sizable changes in production, with implications for food security, biodiversity and carbon storage especially in arid regions where declines are accelerating.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1877-1888
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Ecology and Evolution
Volume	8
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x
State	Published - Oct 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024. corrected publication 2024.

Funding

We thank each of the researchers who have contributed data and ideas to the NutNet (http://www.nutnet.org). Grants to A.S.M., E.E., C.B. and O.C. came from the University of Guelph\u2019s Canada First Research Excellence Fund project \u2018Food from Thought\u2019. Thank you to S. Rodrigues for technical support on data extraction from Google Earth and A. Bjorkman for comments on the paper. Fieldwork was funded at the site scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management in the NutNet have been supported by funding to E.T.B. and E.W.S. from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long-Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 to Cedar Creek LTER) programmes, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting network meetings. This study was funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund\u2014University of Guelph (\u2018Food From Thought\u2019), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (A.S.M.), National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 to Cedar Creek LTER).

Funders	Funder number
University of Guelph
University of Guelph’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Long-Term Ecological Research
U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China	NSF-DEB-1042132
U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China
Long-Term Ecological Research	NSF-DEB-1234162
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment	DG-0001-13

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Ecology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x

Cite this

MacDougall, A. S., Esch, E., Chen, Q., Carroll, O., Bonner, C., Ohlert, T., Siewert, M., Sulik, J., Schweiger, A. K., Borer, E. T., Naidu, D., Bagchi, S., Hautier, Y., Wilfahrt, P., Larson, K., Olofsson, J., Cleland, E., Muthukrishnan, R., O’Halloran, L., ... Seabloom, E. W. (2024). Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 8(10), 1877-1888. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x

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title = "Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s",

abstract = "Global change is associated with variable shifts in the annual production of aboveground plant biomass, suggesting localized sensitivities with unclear causal origins. Combining remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index data since the 1980s with contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents, we show a widening divergence in site-level biomass ranging from +51\% to −34\% globally. Biomass generally increased in warmer, wetter and species-rich sites with longer growing seasons and declined in species-poor arid areas. Phenological changes were widespread, revealing substantive transitions in grassland seasonal cycling. Grazing, nitrogen deposition and plant invasion were prevalent in some regions but did not predict overall trends. Grasslands are undergoing sizable changes in production, with implications for food security, biodiversity and carbon storage especially in arid regions where declines are accelerating.",

author = "MacDougall, \{Andrew S.\} and Ellen Esch and Qingqing Chen and Oliver Carroll and Colin Bonner and Timothy Ohlert and Matthias Siewert and John Sulik and Schweiger, \{Anna K.\} and Borer, \{Elizabeth T.\} and Dilip Naidu and Sumanta Bagchi and Yann Hautier and Peter Wilfahrt and Keith Larson and Johan Olofsson and Elsa Cleland and Ranjan Muthukrishnan and Lydia O{\textquoteright}Halloran and Juan Alberti and Anderson, \{T. Michael\} and Arnillas, \{Carlos A.\} and Bakker, \{Jonathan D.\} and Barrio, \{Isabel C.\} and Lori Biederman and Boughton, \{Elizabeth H.\} and Brudvig, \{Lars A.\} and Martin Bruschetti and Yvonne Buckley and Bugalho, \{Miguel N.\} and Cadotte, \{Marc W.\} and Caldeira, \{Maria C.\} and Catford, \{Jane A.\} and Carla D{\textquoteright}Antonio and Kendi Davies and Pedro Daleo and Dickman, \{Christopher R.\} and Ian Donohue and DuPre, \{Mary Ellyn\} and Kenneth Elgersma and Nico Eisenhauer and Anu Eskelinen and Catalina Estrada and Fay, \{Philip A.\} and Yanhao Feng and Gruner, \{Daniel S.\} and Nicole Hagenah and Sylvia Haider and Harpole, \{W. Stanley\} and Erika Hersch-Green and Anke Jentsch and Kevin Kirkman and Knops, \{Johannes M.H.\} and Lauri Laanisto and Lannes, \{Luc{\'i}ola S.\} and Ramesh Laungani and Ariuntsetseg Lkhagva and Petr Macek and Martina, \{Jason P.\} and McCulley, \{Rebecca L.\} and Brett Melbourne and Rachel Mitchell and Moore, \{Joslin L.\} and Morgan, \{John W.\} and Muraina, \{Taofeek O.\} and Yujie Niu and Meelis P{\"a}rtel and Peri, \{Pablo L.\} and Power, \{Sally A.\} and Price, \{Jodi N.\} and Prober, \{Suzanne M.\} and Zhengwei Ren and Risch, \{Anita C.\} and Smith, \{Nicholas G.\} and Gr{\'e}gory Sonnier and Standish, \{Rachel J.\} and Stevens, \{Carly J.\} and Michelle Tedder and Pedro Tognetti and Veen, \{G. F.\} and Risto Virtanen and Wardle, \{Glenda M.\} and Elizabeth Waring and Wolf, \{Amelia A.\} and Laura Yahdjian and Seabloom, \{Eric W.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024. corrected publication 2024.",

year = "2024",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x",

language = "English",

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MacDougall, AS, Esch, E, Chen, Q, Carroll, O, Bonner, C, Ohlert, T, Siewert, M, Sulik, J, Schweiger, AK, Borer, ET, Naidu, D, Bagchi, S, Hautier, Y, Wilfahrt, P, Larson, K, Olofsson, J, Cleland, E, Muthukrishnan, R, O’Halloran, L, Alberti, J, Anderson, TM, Arnillas, CA, Bakker, JD, Barrio, IC, Biederman, L, Boughton, EH, Brudvig, LA, Bruschetti, M, Buckley, Y, Bugalho, MN, Cadotte, MW, Caldeira, MC, Catford, JA, D’Antonio, C, Davies, K, Daleo, P, Dickman, CR, Donohue, I, DuPre, ME, Elgersma, K, Eisenhauer, N, Eskelinen, A, Estrada, C, Fay, PA, Feng, Y, Gruner, DS, Hagenah, N, Haider, S, Harpole, WS, Hersch-Green, E, Jentsch, A, Kirkman, K, Knops, JMH, Laanisto, L, Lannes, LS, Laungani, R, Lkhagva, A, Macek, P, Martina, JP, McCulley, RL, Melbourne, B, Mitchell, R, Moore, JL, Morgan, JW, Muraina, TO, Niu, Y, Pärtel, M, Peri, PL, Power, SA, Price, JN, Prober, SM, Ren, Z, Risch, AC, Smith, NG, Sonnier, G, Standish, RJ, Stevens, CJ, Tedder, M, Tognetti, P, Veen, GF, Virtanen, R, Wardle, GM, Waring, E, Wolf, AA, Yahdjian, L & Seabloom, EW 2024, 'Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s', Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 1877-1888. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x

TY - JOUR

T1 - Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s

AU - MacDougall, Andrew S.

AU - Esch, Ellen

AU - Chen, Qingqing

AU - Carroll, Oliver

AU - Bonner, Colin

AU - Ohlert, Timothy

AU - Siewert, Matthias

AU - Sulik, John

AU - Schweiger, Anna K.

AU - Borer, Elizabeth T.

AU - Naidu, Dilip

AU - Bagchi, Sumanta

AU - Hautier, Yann

AU - Wilfahrt, Peter

AU - Larson, Keith

AU - Olofsson, Johan

AU - Cleland, Elsa

AU - Muthukrishnan, Ranjan

AU - O’Halloran, Lydia

AU - Alberti, Juan

AU - Anderson, T. Michael

AU - Arnillas, Carlos A.

AU - Bakker, Jonathan D.

AU - Barrio, Isabel C.

AU - Biederman, Lori

AU - Boughton, Elizabeth H.

AU - Brudvig, Lars A.

AU - Bruschetti, Martin

AU - Buckley, Yvonne

AU - Bugalho, Miguel N.

AU - Cadotte, Marc W.

AU - Caldeira, Maria C.

AU - Catford, Jane A.

AU - D’Antonio, Carla

AU - Davies, Kendi

AU - Daleo, Pedro

AU - Dickman, Christopher R.

AU - Donohue, Ian

AU - DuPre, Mary Ellyn

AU - Elgersma, Kenneth

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

AU - Eskelinen, Anu

AU - Estrada, Catalina

AU - Fay, Philip A.

AU - Feng, Yanhao

AU - Gruner, Daniel S.

AU - Hagenah, Nicole

AU - Haider, Sylvia

AU - Harpole, W. Stanley

AU - Hersch-Green, Erika

AU - Jentsch, Anke

AU - Kirkman, Kevin

AU - Knops, Johannes M.H.

AU - Laanisto, Lauri

AU - Lannes, Lucíola S.

AU - Laungani, Ramesh

AU - Lkhagva, Ariuntsetseg

AU - Macek, Petr

AU - Martina, Jason P.

AU - McCulley, Rebecca L.

AU - Melbourne, Brett

AU - Mitchell, Rachel

AU - Moore, Joslin L.

AU - Morgan, John W.

AU - Muraina, Taofeek O.

AU - Niu, Yujie

AU - Pärtel, Meelis

AU - Peri, Pablo L.

AU - Power, Sally A.

AU - Price, Jodi N.

AU - Prober, Suzanne M.

AU - Ren, Zhengwei

AU - Risch, Anita C.

AU - Smith, Nicholas G.

AU - Sonnier, Grégory

AU - Standish, Rachel J.

AU - Stevens, Carly J.

AU - Tedder, Michelle

AU - Tognetti, Pedro

AU - Veen, G. F.

AU - Virtanen, Risto

AU - Wardle, Glenda M.

AU - Waring, Elizabeth

AU - Wolf, Amelia A.

AU - Yahdjian, Laura

AU - Seabloom, Eric W.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024. corrected publication 2024.

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - Global change is associated with variable shifts in the annual production of aboveground plant biomass, suggesting localized sensitivities with unclear causal origins. Combining remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index data since the 1980s with contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents, we show a widening divergence in site-level biomass ranging from +51% to −34% globally. Biomass generally increased in warmer, wetter and species-rich sites with longer growing seasons and declined in species-poor arid areas. Phenological changes were widespread, revealing substantive transitions in grassland seasonal cycling. Grazing, nitrogen deposition and plant invasion were prevalent in some regions but did not predict overall trends. Grasslands are undergoing sizable changes in production, with implications for food security, biodiversity and carbon storage especially in arid regions where declines are accelerating.

AB - Global change is associated with variable shifts in the annual production of aboveground plant biomass, suggesting localized sensitivities with unclear causal origins. Combining remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index data since the 1980s with contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents, we show a widening divergence in site-level biomass ranging from +51% to −34% globally. Biomass generally increased in warmer, wetter and species-rich sites with longer growing seasons and declined in species-poor arid areas. Phenological changes were widespread, revealing substantive transitions in grassland seasonal cycling. Grazing, nitrogen deposition and plant invasion were prevalent in some regions but did not predict overall trends. Grasslands are undergoing sizable changes in production, with implications for food security, biodiversity and carbon storage especially in arid regions where declines are accelerating.

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VL - 8

SP - 1877

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JO - Nature Ecology and Evolution

JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution

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ER -

Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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