Climate Warming Consistently Reduces Grassland Ecosystem Productivity

Future climate may profoundly impact the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, we do not know well how different types grassland ecosystems is associated with variation in temperature and precipitation. Here, used long-term field measurements to examine climatic changes between 1980s 2010s (i.e., growing season temperature, precipitation, habitat moisture index, solar radiation, sunshine duration) have affected aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) for all major northern China. We found that ANPP consistently declined over 30-year period across grassland, on average by about 6.1%. Warming, increased radiation and, hence, soil was factor driving decrease ANPP. further show more sensitive change alpine lowland grasslands than temperate grasslands. Together, our findings indicate warming reduces plant ecosystems, emphasize importance decline under change.