DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gqnk98sz6
title: Grazing regulates temperate grassland multidimensional stability facing extreme winter snowfall reductions by influencing below-ground bud density

description: Global climate changes increased the frequency of snowfall reduction
 events in the Northern Hemisphere, consequently suppressing plant
 productivity. Grazing, the most widespread use of grasslands, influences
 productivity in response to climatic extremes by shaping community
 structure. Since grazing could disrupt normal plant growth and
 reproduction, rest from grazing at various stages of the growing season
 may have different effects on above- and below-ground community
 properties. However, how grazing or grazing rest at different stages of
 growing season affects grassland stability when facing extreme snowfall
 reduction remains unclear. We investigated the multidimensional stability
 (resistance, resilience, recovery, and temporal stability) of above-ground
 net primary productivity (ANPP) under a time-dependent strategic-rest
 grazing practice (rest in early, peak, and late growing stage) experiment,
 during which a natural extreme snowfall reduction event occurred. We also
 assessed plant richness, dominance, asynchrony, key functional group
 stability, and below-ground bud density to explore the mechanisms
 underlying multidimensional stability. We found that extreme snowfall
 reduction significantly decreased grassland ANPP under all grazing
 practices. However, grazing with short-term rest during the peak growing
 stage significantly enhanced ANPP, improved resistance and recovery from
 extreme snowfall reduction, and consequently greatly improved the temporal
 stability compared to continuous grazing. In contrast, the grazing rest
 during the early and late growing stages did not improve temporal
 stability of ANPP. Meanwhile, resilience was not affected by grazing
 practices. The benefits of peak rest primarily arise from allowing the
 formation of sufficient below-ground buds before and after extreme events.
 Notably, changes in community properties (such as diversity or asynchrony)
 resulting from the rest were not correlated with resistance and recovery.
 Additionally, the increases in grass bud density from the peak rest
 indirectly contributed to temporal stability by enhancing the stability of
 perennial rhizome grass and preserving community composition. Synthesis:
 These findings underscore the essential role of plant below-ground buds in
 sustaining stable grassland productivity in response to snowfall reduction
 and also suggest that grassland management strategies should account for
 the protection of plant asexual reproductive organs, which contributes to
 grassland sustainability in the face of future climate change.
description: # Grazing regulates temperate grassland multidimensional stability facing
 extreme winter snowfall reductions by influencing below-ground bud density
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gqnk98sz6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gqnk98sz6) ## Description of the data and file structure We investigated the multidimensional stability (resistance, recovery, and temporal stability) of above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) under a time-dependent strategic-rest grazing practice (rest in early, peak, and late growing stage) experiment, during which a natural extreme snowfall reduction event occurred. We also assessed plant richness, dominance, asynchrony, key functional group stability, and below-ground bud density to explore the mechanisms underlying multidimensional stability. This dataset consists of three subsets: 1) ANPP resistance and its possible predictors; 2) ANPP recovery and its possible predictors; and 3) ANPP temporal stability and its possible predictors ### Files and variables #### File: 20250118-JEC-dataset.xls **Description:**  ##### Variables Dataset-Resistance: | **Abbreviation** | **Units** | **Note** | | :--------------- | :--------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------- | | richness | Number of species per square meter | speices richness (average of 2018 and 2019) | | dominance | Unitless  | Simpson's dominance index (average of 2018 and 2019) | | PR\_res | Unitless  | resistance of perennial rhizome grass (PR) | | asynchrony  | Unitless  | asynchrony for resistance | | comp\_res | Unitless  | resistance of community composition | | Bud\_grass\_pre | Buds per square meter (buds/m²) | soil bud density of grass before extreme snowfall reduction event | | resistance | Unitless  | resistance of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) | Dataset-Recovery: | **Abbreviation** | **Units** | **Note** | | :--------------- | :--------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------- | | richness | Number of species per square meter | speices richness (average of 2018 and 2020) | | dominance | Unitless  | Simpson's dominance index (average of 2018 and 2020) | | PR\_rec | Unitless  | recovery of perennial rhizome grass (PR) | | asynchrony  | Unitless  | asynchrony for recovery | | comp\_rec | Unitless  | recovery of community composition | | Bud\_grass\_post | Buds per square meter (buds/m²) | soil bud density of grass after extreme snowfall reduction event | | recovery | Unitless  | recovery of ANPP | Dataset-TS: | **Abbreviation** | **Units** | **Note** | | :------------------ | :--------------------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------- | | richness | Number of species per square meter | speices richness (average of 2018, 2019, and 2020) | | dominance | Unitless  | Simpson's dominance index (average of 2018, 2019, and 2020) | | PR\_TS | Unitless  | temporal stability of perennial rhizome grass (PR) | | asynchrony  | Unitless  | asynchrony (2018-2020) | | comp\_TS | Unitless  | community composition (2018-2020) | | Bud\_grass\_average | Buds per square meter (buds/m²) | average of grass bud densities before and after the extreme events | | TS | Unitless  | temporal stability of ANPP | ## Code/software This dataset does not contain software.