Precipitation regulates plant gas exchange and its long-term response to climate change in a temperate grassland

doi:10.1093/jpe/rtw010

Abstract

Abstract: Aims Climate change largely impacts ecosystem carbon and water cycles by changing plant gas exchange, which may further cause positive or negative feedback to global climate change. However, long-term global change manipulative experiments are seldom conducted to reveal plant ecophysiological responses to climatic warming and altered precipitation regimes.
Methods An 8-year field experiment with both warming and increased precipitation was conducted in a temperate grassland in northern China. We measured leaf gas exchange rates (including plant photosynthesis, transpiration and instantaneous water use efficiency [WUE]) of two dominant plant species (Stipa sareptana var. krylovii and Agropyron cristatum) from 2005 to 2012 (except 2006 and 2010) and those of other six species from 2011 to 2012.
Important findings Increased precipitation significantly stimulated plant photosynthetic rates (A) by 29.5% and 19.9% and transpiration rates (E) by 42.2% and 51.2% for both dominant species S. sareptana var. krylovii and A. cristatum, respectively, across the 8 years. Similarly, A and E of the six plant functional types were all stimulated by increased precipitation in 2011 and 2012. As the balance of A and E, the instantaneous WUEs of different plant species had species-specific responses to increased precipitation. In contrast, neither warming nor its interaction with increased precipitation significantly affected plant leaf gas exchange rates. Furthermore, A and E of the two dominant species and their response magnitudes to water treatments positively correlated with rainfall amount in July across years. We did not find any significant difference between the short-term versus long-term responses of plant photosynthesis, suggesting the flexibility of leaf gas exchange under climate change. The results suggest that changing precipitation rather than global warming plays a prominent role in determining production of this grassland in the context of climate change.

Key words: grassland, leaf gas exchange, photosynthesis, precipitation, transpiration, warming, water use efficiency

摘要：
Aims Climate change largely impacts ecosystem carbon and water cycles by changing plant gas exchange, which may further cause positive or negative feedback to global climate change. However, long-term global change manipulative experiments are seldom conducted to reveal plant ecophysiological responses to climatic warming and altered precipitation regimes.
Methods An 8-year field experiment with both warming and increased precipitation was conducted in a temperate grassland in northern China. We measured leaf gas exchange rates (including plant photosynthesis, transpiration and instantaneous water use efficiency [WUE]) of two dominant plant species (Stipa sareptana var. krylovii and Agropyron cristatum) from 2005 to 2012 (except 2006 and 2010) and those of other six species from 2011 to 2012.
Important findings Increased precipitation significantly stimulated plant photosynthetic rates (A) by 29.5% and 19.9% and transpiration rates (E) by 42.2% and 51.2% for both dominant species S. sareptana var. krylovii and A. cristatum, respectively, across the 8 years. Similarly, A and E of the six plant functional types were all stimulated by increased precipitation in 2011 and 2012. As the balance of A and E, the instantaneous WUEs of different plant species had species-specific responses to increased precipitation. In contrast, neither warming nor its interaction with increased precipitation significantly affected plant leaf gas exchange rates. Furthermore, A and E of the two dominant species and their response magnitudes to water treatments positively correlated with rainfall amount in July across years. We did not find any significant difference between the short-term versus long-term responses of plant photosynthesis, suggesting the flexibility of leaf gas exchange under climate change. The results suggest that changing precipitation rather than global warming plays a prominent role in determining production of this grassland in the context of climate change.

Bing Song, Shuli Niu, Shiqiang Wan. Precipitation regulates plant gas exchange and its long-term response to climate change in a temperate grassland[J]. J Plant Ecol, 2016, 9(5): 531-541.

[1]	Mingli Ding, Yao Wei, Yuzhang Li, Jianyu Ma, Jingya Zhang, Jiangqin Song, Huiying Liu, Hao Wang, Zhenhua Zhang. Trait-reproductive allocation pathways of different flowering groups under seasonal drought in alpine meadows [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(3): 1-.
[2]	Mengdie Wang, Chuan Jin, Yao Gao, Weirong Zhang, Kai Di, Yue Jiao, Liucui Wu, Zehao Fan, Cheng Yi, Nana Cai, Siyuan Zhou, Zhongmin Hu. Does the reduction of precipitation always suppress vegetation productivity? [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(3): 1-.
[3]	Li Chen, Amparo Lázaro, Haidong Li, Zhibin Tao, Jun Yin, Mingchuan Zhong, Guangtao Meng, Pinrong Li, Sheng Qiu, Dezhu Li, Hong Wang, Yanhui Zhao. Aggressive native plant disrupts plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi networks in subalpine meadows [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(3): 1-.
[4]	Jiatao Zhang, Lan Du, Yonghong Luo, Yann Hautier, Ru Tian, Yan Shen, Mohsin Mahmood, Zhuwen Xu. Distinct effects of drought and nitrogen enrichment on the compositional and productivity stability of temperate grasslands [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(2): 1-.
[5]	Xiao-Hua Yang, Xiao-Sa Liang, Yuan Shi, Yuan-Xiu Wu, Xiao-Ru Zhang, Cong Ding, Xiao-Jing Zhang, Alemayehu Adugna, Xiao-Tao Lü. Grassland plant species with slow-growing strategy are more resistant to extreme drought [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(2): 1-.
[6]	Mingli Wei, Jingwei Guo, Runhao Liu, Juan Xuan, Zhenxing Zhou, Zhongling Yang, Anqun Chen, Yinzhan Liu. Growing and non-growing seasons warming interactively affect plant phenology in semi-arid steppe [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[7]	Yu An, Yang Gao, Jian Liu, Yuqi Zhang, Duojia Wang, Hongyuan Ma, Shouzheng Tong. Plant community root traits outweigh target species in mediating soil carbon and nitrogen storage across grazing-exclusion chronosequences in semi-arid grasslands [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[8]	Shuting Yu, Danlin Huang, Qiaoyan Chen, Siyuan Cheng, Jie Li, Junna Feng, Xiaowei Guo, Yangong Du, Zhongmin Hu, Licong Dai. Water use patterns of five dominant tree species in tropical secondary forests [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[9]	Jiaojiao Wang, Fei Zang, Ruochun Wang, Fangyuan Huang , Wenfang Zeng, Hu Hao, Chuanyan Zhao. Accumulation and translocation of trace elements in plant-soil systems of the Qilian Mountains grassland under climate warming [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[10]	Ke Zhang, Feng Zhang, Xian-Qi Zhou, Qing-Pu Wang, Zi-Ying Wang, Sheng-Mei Li, Yao-Ming Li, Shi-Kui Dong. Geographical and climatic drivers of phyllosphere microbiota in alpine grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-0.
[11]	Congwen Wang, Yuan Wang, Linna Ma, Xuehua Ye, Guofang Liu. Distinct geographic patterns and drivers of plant, bacterial, and fungal β-diversity in semi-arid grasslands: Insights from a 1,700 km transect in northern China [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[12]	Huiqi Zhang, Guangxuan Han, Wenli Jia, Wanxin Huang, Xiaoshuai Zhang, Xiaojie Wang, Mingliang Zhao, Baohua Xie, Feng Lu, Jianbin Song, Wei Zhang, Xiaojing Chu. Soil CO₂ not CH₄ flux determines soil carbon emission response to seasonal precipitation variation in a brackish wetland [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[13]	Qiongwei Lei, Xiaoyan Kang, Mingxu Li, Nianpeng He. Divergent responses of photosynthesis and respiration underlie the nonlinear response of carbon use efficiency to temperature in sub-frigid forest in China [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[14]	Chunyue Yao, Jinchao Feng, Yeming Zhang, Zhenhua Dang, Linna Ma. Plant diversity dominates the regulation of ecosystem multifunctionality under grazing management in temperate grasslands [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2025, 18(6): 1-40.
[15]	Jianyong Wang, Yingxia Liu, Ayub M.O. Oduor, Mark van Kleunen, Yanjie Liu. Diversity and productivity of a natural grassland decline with the number of global change factors [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2025, 18(6): 1-30.