Abstract
In the context of global climate change, changes in precipitation patterns will have profound effects on desert plants, particularly on shallow-rooted plants, such as ephemeral plants. Therefore, we conducted an experiment on artificial control of precipitation for four dominant ephemeral plants, Erodium oxyrhinchum, Alyssum linifolium, Malcolmia scorpioides, and Hyalea pulchella, in the southern edge of Gurbantunggut Desert. We measured the importance value and some growth parameters of the four species under increased or decreased precipitation and constructed trait correlation networks for each of the four species. We also compared the response of increased or decreased precipitation to vegetation coverage. The results show that drought significantly reduced the survival rate, seed production and weight, and aboveground biomass accumulation of ephemeral plants. The four ephemeral plants showed different tolerance and response strategies to precipitation changes. E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides can avoid drought by accelerating life history, and E. oxyrhinchum, A. linifolium, and H. pulchella can alleviate the negative effects of drought by adjusting leaf traits. However, the response of different species to the wet treatment was not consistent. Based on the results of the trait correlation network, we consider A. linifolium belongs to the ruderal plant, E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides belong to the competitive plants, and H. pulchella belongs to the stress-tolerant plant. The outstanding trait coordination ability of E. oxyrhinchum makes it show absolute dominance in the community. This indicate that ephemeral plants can adapt to precipitation changes to a certain extent, and that distinct competitive advantages in growth or reproduction enabled species coexistence in the same ecological niche. Nevertheless, drought significantly reduces their community cover and the ecological value of ephemeral plants. These findings established the basis to predict vegetation dynamics in arid areas under precipitation changes.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 18
Claim · model-written summary
Drought significantly reduced survival, seed production and seed weight.
- Taxon
- ephemeral plantse0
- Treatment
- droughte0
- Outcome
- survival rate, seed production and weighte0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“drought significantly reduced the survival rate, seed production and weight, and aboveground biomass accumulation of ephemeral plants.”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought significantly reduced aboveground biomass accumulation.
- Taxon
- ephemeral plantse0
- Treatment
- droughte0
- Outcome
- aboveground biomass accumulatione0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“drought significantly reduced the survival rate, seed production and weight, and aboveground biomass accumulation of ephemeral plants.”
Claim · model-written summary
Four ephemeral species differed in tolerance and response to precipitation.
Verbatim
e0“The four ephemeral plants showed different tolerance and response strategies to precipitation changes.”
Claim · model-written summary
Erodium oxyrhinchum avoided drought by accelerating its life history.
- Taxon
- Erodium oxyrhinchumErodium oxyrhynchume1
- Outcome
- avoid droughte0
- Qualifier
- accelerating life historye0
Verbatim
e0“E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides can avoid drought by accelerating life history”
e1“Erodium oxyrhinchum, Alyssum linifolium, Malcolmia scorpioides, and Hyalea pulchella”
Claim · model-written summary
Malcolmia scorpioides avoided drought by accelerating its life history.
- Taxon
- Malcolmia scorpioidesStrigosella scorpioidese1
- Outcome
- avoid droughte0
- Qualifier
- accelerating life historye0
Verbatim
e0“E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides can avoid drought by accelerating life history”
e1“Malcolmia scorpioides”
Claim · model-written summary
Erodium oxyrhinchum alleviated drought effects by adjusting leaf traits.
- Taxon
- Erodium oxyrhinchumErodium oxyrhynchume1
- Outcome
- alleviate the negative effects of droughte0
- Qualifier
- adjusting leaf traitse0
Verbatim
e0“E. oxyrhinchum, A. linifolium, and H. pulchella can alleviate the negative effects of drought by adjusting leaf traits.”
e1“Erodium oxyrhinchum”
Claim · model-written summary
Alyssum linifolium alleviated drought effects by adjusting leaf traits.
- Taxon
- Alyssum linifolium
.jpg?width=60)
Meniocus linifoliuse1 - Outcome
- alleviate the negative effects of droughte0
- Qualifier
- adjusting leaf traitse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“A. linifolium, and H. pulchella can alleviate the negative effects of drought by adjusting leaf traits.”
e1“Alyssum linifolium”
Claim · model-written summary
Hyalea pulchella alleviated drought effects by adjusting leaf traits.
- Taxon
- Hyalea pulchella
.jpg?width=60)
Centaurea pulchellae1 - Outcome
- alleviate the negative effects of droughte0
- Qualifier
- adjusting leaf traitse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“H. pulchella can alleviate the negative effects of drought by adjusting leaf traits.”
e1“Hyalea pulchella”
Claim · model-written summary
Species responses to wet treatment were inconsistent.
Verbatim
e0“the response of different species to the wet treatment was not consistent.”
e1“shallow-rooted plants, such as ephemeral plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Trait networks classified Alyssum linifolium as ruderal.
- Taxon
- Alyssum linifoliumMeniocus linifoliuse1
- Outcome
- ruderal plante0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“A. linifolium belongs to the ruderal plant”
e1“Alyssum linifolium”
Claim · model-written summary
Trait networks classified Erodium oxyrhinchum as competitive.
- Taxon
- Erodium oxyrhinchumErodium oxyrhynchume1
- Outcome
- competitive plantse0
Verbatim
e0“E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides belong to the competitive plants”
e1“Erodium oxyrhinchum”
Claim · model-written summary
Trait networks classified Malcolmia scorpioides as competitive.
- Taxon
- Malcolmia scorpioidesStrigosella scorpioidese1
- Outcome
- competitive plantse0
Verbatim
e0“E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides belong to the competitive plants”
e1“Malcolmia scorpioides”
Claim · model-written summary
Trait networks classified Hyalea pulchella as stress tolerant.
- Taxon
- Hyalea pulchellaCentaurea pulchellae1
- Outcome
- stress-tolerant plante0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“H. pulchella belongs to the stress-tolerant plant”
e1“Hyalea pulchella”
Claim · model-written summary
Trait coordination made Erodium oxyrhinchum dominant in the community.
- Taxon
- Erodium oxyrhinchumErodium oxyrhynchume1
- Outcome
- absolute dominance in the communitye0
- Qualifier
- outstanding trait coordination abilitye0
Verbatim
e0“The outstanding trait coordination ability of E. oxyrhinchum makes it show absolute dominance in the community.”
e1“Erodium oxyrhinchum”
Claim · model-written summary
Authors infer ephemeral plants adapt somewhat to precipitation changes.
Verbatim
e0“ephemeral plants can adapt to precipitation changes to a certain extent”
Claim · model-written summary
Growth or reproductive advantages enabled coexistence in the same niche.
Verbatim
e0“distinct competitive advantages in growth or reproduction enabled species coexistence in the same ecological niche.”
e1“shallow-rooted plants, such as ephemeral plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought significantly reduced community cover.
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“drought significantly reduces their community cover and the ecological value of ephemeral plants.”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought significantly reduced the ecological value of ephemeral plants.
- Taxon
- ephemeral plantse0
- Treatment
- droughte0
- Outcome
- ecological value of ephemeral plantse0
- Direction
- reducese0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“drought significantly reduces their community cover and the ecological value of ephemeral plants.”