title: Shrubland primary production and soil respiration diverge along European climate gradient.
abstract: Above- and belowground carbon (C) stores of terrestrial ecosystems are vulnerable to environmental change. Ecosystem C balances in response to environmental changes have been quantified at individual sites, but the magnitudes and directions of these responses along environmental gradients remain uncertain. Here we show the responses of ecosystem C to 8-12 years of experimental drought and night-time warming across an aridity gradient spanning seven European shrublands using indices of C assimilation (aboveground net primary production: aNPP) and soil C efflux (soil respiration: Rs). The changes of aNPP and Rs in response to drought indicated that wet systems had an overall risk of increased loss of C but drier systems did not. Warming had no consistent effect on aNPP across the climate gradient, but suppressed Rs more at the drier sites. Our findings suggest that above- and belowground C fluxes can decouple, and provide no evidence of acclimation to environmental change at a decadal timescale. aNPP and Rs especially differed in their sensitivity to drought and warming, with belowground processes being more sensitive to environmental change.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology &Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Rd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reinsch
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology &Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Rd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alwyn
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sowerby
authors.affiliation: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics - Forestry Research Centre (CREA-SEL), Viale Santa Margherita, 80 - 52100 Arezzo (AR), Italy.|Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanbattista
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de Dato
authors.affiliation: SCIC, Global Ecology Unit, CREAF-CSIC_UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, E-08193 Spain.|CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia, E-08193 Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estiarte
authors.affiliation: Institute of Agro-Environmental &Forest Biology (IBAF), National Research Council (CNR), Porano, TR, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guidolotti
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Botany, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány u. 2-4., 2163-Vácrátót, Hungary.
authors.forename: Edit
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kovács-Láng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Botany, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány u. 2-4., 2163-Vácrátót, Hungary.
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kröel-Dulay
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Botany, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány u. 2-4., 2163-Vácrátót, Hungary.
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lellei-Kovács
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Klaus S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liberati
authors.affiliation: SCIC, Global Ecology Unit, CREAF-CSIC_UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, E-08193 Spain.|CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia, E-08193 Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peñuelas
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ransijn
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology &Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Rd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Inger K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology &Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Rd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.|School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94240, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tietema
authors.affiliation: Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, United States of America.|Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Dukes
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beier
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology &Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Rd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bridget A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Emmett