Legacy effects of precipitation amount and frequency on the aboveground plant biomass of a semi-arid grassland

Precipitation is known to have legacy effects on plant diversity and production of many terrestrial ecosystems. Precipitation regimes are expected to become more variable with increasing extreme precipitation events. However, how previous-year precipitation regimes affect the current-year aboveground biomass (AGB) remains largely unknown. Here we measured long-term (2004–2017) AGB in a semi-arid grassland of the Chinese Loess Plateau to evaluate the impact of previous-year precipitation amount on current-year AGB. Furthermore, to assess the response of current-year AGB to previous-year precipitation regimes, we conducted a field manipulation experiment that included three precipitation regimes during 2014–2017: (i) ambient precipitation, (ii) monthly added four 5 mm rain events, and (iii) monthly added one 20 mm event. Both the long-term (2004–2017) observations under ambient precipitation and short-term (2014–2017) measurements under manipulative treatments showed significant positive effects of previous-year precipitation on current-year AGB. Our path analysis suggested that previous-year precipitation frequency had negative effects on the current-year density and mean height of grass (Leymus secalinus) while had positive effects on forb (Artemisia capillaris). The forb had much smaller height and AGB (65% and 53% less, respectively) than the grass. Consequently, the AGB reduced in the weekly small events treatment, causing the sensitivity of AGB to precipitation to decrease. Therefore, our findings indicated that the impacts of precipitation regimes on plant community dynamics should be taken into consideration while assessing the precipitation legacy effect on ecosystem production. [Display omitted] •Current-year aboveground biomass (AGB) increased linearly with previous-year precipitation.•Precipitation frequency negatively affects the sensitivity of AGB to precipitation.•Previous-year precipitation amount increases the current-year grass density.•Previous-year precipitation frequency increases the current-year forb density.