Climate change and primary production: Forty years in a bunchgrass prairie

Plant characteristics based on the USDA plant database (drought resistance, fire tolerance, and invasive species) at the two sample sites were examined. Drought resistance significantly varied among years, and increased 35.8% over our study (Table 2, Fig 6A). Fire tolerance did not vary among years, and tended to decrease over our study (Table 2, Fig 6B). Incidence of invasive species (average = 29.8%) increased by 108% over our study (Table 2, Fig 6C). The Fig 4. NBR vegetation since 1978 averaged across all sites in a year. a) trend over time in ANPP for grass, forb and in total; b) trend over time in summer percent plant senescence; and c) trend over time in fall plant production (% ANPP). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243496.g004 PLOS ONE Bunchgrass prairie and climate change PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243496 December 23, 2020 9 / 21