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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1487907
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant Ecophysiology: Responses to Climate Changes and Stress Conditions View all 16 articles

Divergent response of grassland aboveground net primary productivity and precipitation utilization efficiency to altered precipitation patterns by process-based model

Provisionally accepted
Chen Cheng Chen Cheng 1Lu Wu Lu Wu 2,3*Hongyan Liu Hongyan Liu 3Boyi Liang Boyi Liang 4Xinrong Zhu Xinrong Zhu 3Feiyun Yang Feiyun Yang 2
  • 1 Lishui University, Lishui, China
  • 2 China Meteorological Administration Training Center, Beijing, China
  • 3 College of Urban and Environmental Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
  • 4 College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The functioning of ecosystem services in water-limited grassland ecosystems is significantly influenced by precipitation characteristics.This study aims to quantitatively assess the impact of different precipitation scenarios on grassland productivity using the APSIM model. Historical weather data from 1968 to 2017 and observational data from three types of steppes (meadow, typical, and desert steppe) in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from 2004 to 2010 were collected to determine key crop variety parameters for the APSIM model. The effects of annual precipitation, seasonal precipitation, and inter-growing season precipitation variability on aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and precipitation utilization efficiency (PUE) in different types of steppes were investigated by scenario simulation by validated model. The simulated ANPP shows distinctive responses to the changed rainfall characteristics, where the influence of precipitation decreasing is more evident than precipitation increasing by the same precipitation change. Regarding steppe types, the typical steppe responded more strongly to increased precipitation, while decreased precipitation led to higher decline in ANPP for desert steppe. Precipitation during growing seasons caused more significant change than dormancy seasons regarding ANPP, however, PUE show the opposite trend, indicating the contribution of unit level precipitation changes to productivity is significant during dormancy seasons. The effect of changing precipitation during middle growing season outweighed that of late growing season and early growing season, and the positive effect of increasing precipitation were more pronounced in typical steppe and desert steppe if facing early growing season precipitation increase in the future. The research results provide a theoretical basis and technical support for optimizing grassland production management.

    Keywords: APSIM model, precipitation, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, grassland, Ground net productivity, Precipitation utilization efficiency

    Received: 29 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Cheng, Wu, Liu, Liang, Zhu and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lu Wu, China Meteorological Administration Training Center, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.