Recent research led by Daijun Liu, published in New Phytologist, has reported how structure and functional changes of global shrubland ecosystems in response to experimental climate change and nitrogen addition. This study has quantified seven types of vegetation responses, including density and cover, species diversity, shrub proportion, and ecosystem functions across 81 shrubland sites subjected to experimental warming, shifts in precipitation (e.g. increased precipitation and drought), and nitrogen addition.
The results indicate that the magnitude of responses varied depending on the vegetation metrics and treatment conditions. Specifically, aboveground biomass (AGB) was most sensitive to warming, increased precipitation, and nitrogen addition, while density was most responsive to drought treatment. Short-term treatments (1–5 yr) generally elicited stronger responses than long-term ones (> 5 yr), particularly under drought. High sensitivity to changes in climate and nitrogen addition was observed at extremely arid sites (aridity index < 0.2), and water availability strongly mediated sensitivity variation. Surprisingly, many vegetation metrics revealed no association between sensitivity variability and site water availability.
More details can be found here.
Reference: Liu et al. (2025) World-wide impacts of climate change and nitrogen deposition onvegetation structure, composition, and functioning of shrublands. New Phytologist 1-12.
