Effects of Biodiversity, When Treated With Heat and Nitrogen, on Above- and Below-ground Prairie Productivity
As humans continue to have an increasing impact on the environment, understanding the mechanisms by which these effects take place is crucial to stabilizing and maintaining productivity and ecosystem services. In this study, I examine how two of humans’ largest impacts on plant communities, increased heat and nitrogen, interact with biodiversity to change aboveground (AG) and belowground (BG) plant productivity. While previous studies have examined the effects of warming and N addition on these factors separately, the combined effects of heat and nitrogen on productivity, specifically BG productivity, remains unclear. Plots are fully crossed with heat treatments (high, low, and control) and nitrogen addition, as well as varied levels of biodiversity. Plant biomass was collected as a measure of productivity. The effects of heat and nitrogen varied widely with species richness. Specifically, plots with high richness treated with high heat experienced a dramatic drop in AG productivity. However, plots with intermediate richness and high heat treatment experienced the largest increase in BG productivity. The analysis of the nitrogen treatment is near completion. Developing a more thorough understanding of these complex relationships is critical to future management and maintenance of ecosystem functioning under global change.