Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands

Marie Spohn; Sumanta Bagchi; Jonathan D Bakker; Elizabeth T Borer; Clinton Carbutt; Jane A Catford; Christopher R Dickman; Nico Eisenhauer; Anu Eskelinen; Nicole Hagenah; Yann Hautier; Sally E Koerner; Kimberly J Komatsu; Lauri Laanisto; Ylva Lekberg; Jason P Martina; Holly Martinson; Meelis Pärtel; Pablo L Peri; Anita C Risch; Nicholas G Smith; Carly Stevens; G F Ciska Veen; Risto Virtanen; Laura Yahdjian; Alyssa L Young; Hillary S Young; Eric W Seabloom

doi:10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w

Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands

Marie Spohn^*
, Sumanta Bagchi
, Jonathan D Bakker
, Elizabeth T Borer
, Clinton Carbutt
, Jane A Catford
, Christopher R Dickman
, Nico Eisenhauer
, Anu Eskelinen
, Nicole Hagenah
, Yann Hautier
, Sally E Koerner
, Kimberly J Komatsu
, Lauri Laanisto
, Ylva Lekberg
, Jason P Martina
, Holly Martinson
, Meelis Pärtel
, Pablo L Peri
, Anita C Risch

Nicholas G Smith, Carly Stevens, G F Ciska Veen, Risto Virtanen, Laura Yahdjian, Alyssa L Young, Hillary S Young, Eric W Seabloom

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth's land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption of linear relationships between plant biomass and the environment and an underestimation of interactions of environmental variables. Using data from 116 grasslands on six continents, we show unimodal relationships between plant biomass and ecosystem characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and soil nitrogen. Further, we found that soil nitrogen and plant diversity interacted in their relationships with plant biomass, such that plant diversity and biomass were positively related at low levels of nitrogen and negatively at elevated levels of nitrogen. Our results show that it is critical to account for the interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass and several environmental variables to accurately include plant biomass in global vegetation and carbon models.

Original language	English
Article number	97
Number of pages	1
Journal	Communications Biology
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w
Publication status	Published - 21 Jan 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

Funding

This work was generated using data from the Nutrient Network experiment, funded at the site-scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E.T.B. and E.W.S. from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. Soil analyses were supported by funds from Oregon State University and University of Minnesota to E.T.B. and E.W.S. and by USDA-ARS grant 58-3098-7-007 to ETB. M.S. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) (grant number 101043387). J.A.C. acknowledges funding from the ERC under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [101002987]). N.E. acknowledges the support of iDiv, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG - FZT 118, 202548816), as well as by the DFG (Ei 862/29-1; Ei 862/31-1). A.E. acknowledges the Finnish Academy (project no 351089). Y.L. acknowledges MPG Ranch for funding establishment, maintenance and data collection of NutNet sites. L.L. acknowledges the Estonian Academy of Sciences (research professorship for Arctic studies) and Adam Mickiewicz University Polar Station (Petuniabukta). K.J.K. acknowledges Konza Prairie LTER funding from NSF 2025849, NSF 1440484, NSF 0823341, NSF 0218210. M.P. acknowledges the Estonian Research Council (PRG609) and the Centre of Excellence AgroCropFuture. N.G.S. acknowledges support from Texas Tech University and the US National Science Foundation (DEB-2045968).

Funders	Funder number
Konza Prairie LTER
University of Minnesota
Centre of Excellence AgroCropFuture
Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia
Adam Mickiewicz University Polar Station
Oregon State University
Institute on the Environment	DG-0001-13
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	Ei 862/29-1, 202548816, Ei 862/31-1, FZT 118
National Science Foundation	1440484, 0218210, 0823341, 2025849, NSF-DEB-1042132
Eesti Teadusagentuur	PRG609
Agricultural Research Service	58-3098-7-007
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	101002987
European Research Council	101043387
Texas Tech University	DEB-2045968
Research Council of Finland	351089
Long Term Ecological Research	NSF-DEB-1234162

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 15 Life on Land

Keywords

Biodiversity
Biomass
Ecosystem
Grassland
Nitrogen/metabolism
Plants/metabolism
Poaceae/metabolism
Soil/chemistry

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s42003-025-07518-wFinal published version, 2.3 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Spohn, M., Bagchi, S., Bakker, J. D., Borer, E. T., Carbutt, C., Catford, J. A., Dickman, C. R., Eisenhauer, N., Eskelinen, A., Hagenah, N., Hautier, Y., Koerner, S. E., Komatsu, K. J., Laanisto, L., Lekberg, Y., Martina, J. P., Martinson, H., Pärtel, M., Peri, P. L., ... Seabloom, E. W. (2025). Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands. Communications Biology, 8(1), Article 97. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w

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title = "Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands",

abstract = "Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth's land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption of linear relationships between plant biomass and the environment and an underestimation of interactions of environmental variables. Using data from 116 grasslands on six continents, we show unimodal relationships between plant biomass and ecosystem characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and soil nitrogen. Further, we found that soil nitrogen and plant diversity interacted in their relationships with plant biomass, such that plant diversity and biomass were positively related at low levels of nitrogen and negatively at elevated levels of nitrogen. Our results show that it is critical to account for the interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass and several environmental variables to accurately include plant biomass in global vegetation and carbon models.",

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note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2025.",

year = "2025",

month = jan,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w",

language = "English",

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Spohn, M, Bagchi, S, Bakker, JD, Borer, ET, Carbutt, C, Catford, JA, Dickman, CR, Eisenhauer, N, Eskelinen, A, Hagenah, N, Hautier, Y, Koerner, SE, Komatsu, KJ, Laanisto, L, Lekberg, Y, Martina, JP, Martinson, H, Pärtel, M, Peri, PL, Risch, AC, Smith, NG, Stevens, C, Veen, GFC, Virtanen, R, Yahdjian, L, Young, AL, Young, HS & Seabloom, EW 2025, 'Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands', Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, 97. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w

TY - JOUR

T1 - Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands

AU - Spohn, Marie

AU - Bagchi, Sumanta

AU - Bakker, Jonathan D

AU - Borer, Elizabeth T

AU - Carbutt, Clinton

AU - Catford, Jane A

AU - Dickman, Christopher R

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

AU - Eskelinen, Anu

AU - Hagenah, Nicole

AU - Hautier, Yann

AU - Koerner, Sally E

AU - Komatsu, Kimberly J

AU - Laanisto, Lauri

AU - Lekberg, Ylva

AU - Martina, Jason P

AU - Martinson, Holly

AU - Pärtel, Meelis

AU - Peri, Pablo L

AU - Risch, Anita C

AU - Smith, Nicholas G

AU - Stevens, Carly

AU - Veen, G F Ciska

AU - Virtanen, Risto

AU - Yahdjian, Laura

AU - Young, Alyssa L

AU - Young, Hillary S

AU - Seabloom, Eric W

PY - 2025/1/21

Y1 - 2025/1/21

N2 - Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth's land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption of linear relationships between plant biomass and the environment and an underestimation of interactions of environmental variables. Using data from 116 grasslands on six continents, we show unimodal relationships between plant biomass and ecosystem characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and soil nitrogen. Further, we found that soil nitrogen and plant diversity interacted in their relationships with plant biomass, such that plant diversity and biomass were positively related at low levels of nitrogen and negatively at elevated levels of nitrogen. Our results show that it is critical to account for the interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass and several environmental variables to accurately include plant biomass in global vegetation and carbon models.

AB - Grasslands cover approximately a third of the Earth's land surface and account for about a third of terrestrial carbon storage. Yet, we lack strong predictive models of grassland plant biomass, the primary source of carbon in grasslands. This lack of predictive ability may arise from the assumption of linear relationships between plant biomass and the environment and an underestimation of interactions of environmental variables. Using data from 116 grasslands on six continents, we show unimodal relationships between plant biomass and ecosystem characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and soil nitrogen. Further, we found that soil nitrogen and plant diversity interacted in their relationships with plant biomass, such that plant diversity and biomass were positively related at low levels of nitrogen and negatively at elevated levels of nitrogen. Our results show that it is critical to account for the interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass and several environmental variables to accurately include plant biomass in global vegetation and carbon models.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Biomass

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Grassland

KW - Nitrogen/metabolism

KW - Plants/metabolism

KW - Poaceae/metabolism

KW - Soil/chemistry

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85216565596

U2 - 10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w

DO - 10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w

M3 - Article

C2 - 39838124

SN - 2399-3642

VL - 8

JO - Communications Biology

JF - Communications Biology

IS - 1

M1 - 97

ER -

Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this