Ecosystem stability of temperate grasslands in response to variability of hydrological conditions

Abstract

The relationship between biodiversity and the stability of ecosystem functioningover time has been widely studied. The current global context has refloated thistopic for biodiversity´s role in buffering the effects of different disturbances. Ingeneral, the results of these studies show that ecosystem functioning is morestable over time in more diverse systems. However, these results are derivedfrom empirical research on small-scalestudies, where species and disturbancesconditions are manipulated. In this work, we used climate and floristic informationdata obtained from surveys over an extended period on Flooding Pampagrasslands (Argentina) with a remotely sensed indicator of the stability of netprimary productivity at a regional scale over a broad temporal range to evaluatethe relationship between species diversity and the stability of ecosystem functioningunder different water conditions. We found a close correlation betweenNormalized Difference Vegetation Index responses of natural grasslands andclimate variability in the study area. Besides, grasslands with higher speciesrichness and diversity showed greater stability in ecosystem functioning at differentwater conditions. The results obtained could be relevant in natural resourcemanagement for the close relationship between diversity–stabilityin a local andregional productive context characterized by a simplified landscape of spaceand time.