Recovery dynamics and invasibility of herbaceous plant communities after exposure to fifty-year climate extremes in different seasons

Disturbance events such as climatic extremes may enhance the invasibility of plant communities, through the creation of gaps and the associated local increase in available resources. In this study, experimental herbaceous communities consisting of three species were subjected to 50 yr extreme drought and/or heat events, in spring, summer or autumn. In the year of the induced extremes, species mortality and end-of-season biomass were examined. In two subsequent years without further disturbances, establishment of new species was recorded. The drought and drought + heat extremes in summer and autumn induced greater plant mortality compared with the heat extremes in those seasons and compared with all extremes applied in spring, in all three originally planted species. Recovery in terms of biomass towards the end of the growing season, however, was species-specific. The dominant species, the nitrogen fixer Trifolium repens, recovered poorly from the drought and drought + heat extremes which governed the community response. Community biomass, which was heavily affected by the drought and especially by the drought + heat events in summer and autumn, reached control values already one year later. Invasibility was increased in the communities that underwent the drought + heat extremes in the first year following the extreme events, but no longer in the second year. During the two years of invasion, the community composition changed, but independently of the type and impact of the extreme event. In short, the extreme climate events greatly affected the survival and productivity of the species, modified the species composition and dominance patterns, and increased the invasibility of our plant communities. However, none of these community properties seemed to be affected in the long term, as the induced responses faded out after one or two years.