Diversity and productivity of a natural grassland decline with the number of global change factors

Abstract Grasslands are highly diverse ecosystems providing important ecosystem services, but they currently face a variety of anthropogenic stressors simultaneously. Quantifying grassland responses to global change factors (GCFs) is crucial for developing effective strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of global change on grassland communities and to promote their resilience in the face of future environmental challenges. We conducted a field experiment in the Songnen grassland, northeastern China, to test the combined effects of 0, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 GCFs, including fungicide, herbicide, insecticide, antibiotic stress, heavy metal pollution, light pollution, microplastic pollution, nitrogen deposition, tillage disturbance and increased precipitation. We found that within one year, the increasing number of GCFs negatively impacts both the productivity and diversity of grassland communities. In comparison to exposure to a single GCF, exposure to 8 GCFs led to a reduction in productivity and species richness by 42.8% and 42.9%, respectively. Furthermore, these negative effects seem to be linked to the reduction of dominant species and the concurrent increase in neonative species (i.e., species that have expanded their geographic range into a new area without direct human assistance, but as an indirect consequence of human-induced environmental changes). The results of hierarchical diversity-interaction modeling suggested that the adverse impacts of an increasing number of GCFs on community productivity and diversity are attributable to both the specific identities of GCFs involved and their unique pairwise interactions. The results suggest that grasslands may quickly lose stability and degrade more rapidly in response to multiple co-occurring GCFs. Greater efforts should be made to conserve the functions and services of grassland ecosystems by reducing the impacts of human activities.