Biodiversity effects under climate extremes intensify with aridity in grasslands but not forests
| Authors: | Takehiro Sasaki, Daniela Hoss, Yuanyuan Huang, Yuki Iwachido, Liting Zheng, Luis Abdala-Roberts, Eric Allan, Harald Auge, Nadia Barsoum, Jürgen Bauhus, Christel Baum, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Friderike Beyer, Pedro Brancalion, Seraina L. Cappelli, Chengjin Chu, Dylan Craven, Caroline Daniel, Jiri Dolezal, Anne Ebeling, Marina Fagundes, Olga Ferlian, Gislene Ganade, Tobias Gebauer, Benoit Gendreau-Berthiaume, Douglas Godbold, Nathaly Guerrero-Ramírez, Joannès Guillemot, Peter Hajek, Andy Hector, Dirk Hölscher, Hervé Jactel, Anke Jentsch, Julia Koricheva, Holger Kreft, Juergen Kreyling, Vojtech Lanta, Jan Leps, Wei Lin, Maybeth Mendoza-Espinosa, Celine Meredieu, Christian Messier, Sebastian T. Meyer, Florencia Montagnini, Bart Muys, Charles Nock, Alain Paquette, William C. Parker, John D. Parker, Victor Parra-Tabla, John A. Parrotta, Gustavo B. Paterno, Noémie A. Pichon, Daniel Piotto, Wayne Polley, Quentin Ponette, Catherine Potvin, Peter B. Reich, Boris Rewald, Agnès Robin, Christiane Roscher, Hans Sanden, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Florian Schnabel, Eric B. Searle, Alrun Siebenkäs, Rachel J. Standish, David Tilman, Jasper van Ruijven, Kris Verheyen, Alexandra Weigelt, Martin Weih, Ramona Werner, Brian Wilsey, Bernhard Schmid, Forest Isbell, Nico Eisenhauer |
| Year: | 2026 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | International Institute of Tropical Forestry |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03130-1 |
| Source: | Nature Ecology & Evolution |
Abstract
Biodiversity generally enhances ecosystem productivity, but whether such effects persist or intensify during climate extremes is unclear. Here we synthesized data from 75 biodiversity experiments across grasslands and forests to assess how aridity and soil nutrients modulate plant diversity effects under drought and heat extremes. Biodiversity most strongly enhanced productivity under extreme drought in more arid grasslands but had limited effects in forests under such conditions. More arid grasslands showed enhanced complementarity effects under extreme drought, whereas less arid grasslands favoured selection effects driven by productive species. Heat extremes did not produce comparable context-dependent changes in plant diversity effects across ecosystem types or aridity gradients. Soil nutrients did not have any detectable influence under either drought or heat extremes, suggesting that as climatic stress intensifies, hydric limitations override edaphic constraints. Our synthesis identifies when and where plant diversity most strongly enhances productivity, showing that its effects are the greatest under extreme drought in more arid grasslands.