Prairie management practices influence biodiversity, productivity and surface–atmosphere feedbacks

Grassland restoration efforts aim to reestablish vegetation cover and maintain ecosystem services. However, there is a lack of systematic evaluation of the effects of grassland restoration and management strategies on biodiversity, productivity and surface–atmosphere feedbacks affecting climate.

Through a multiyear grassland restoration experiment in a tallgrass prairie site in Nebraska, USA, we investigated how different management practices affected biodiversity, productivity and surface–atmosphere feedbacks using a combination of in situ measurements and airborne hyperspectral and thermal remote sensing.

Our findings indicated that management treatments affected vegetation diversity, productivity and energy balance. Higher diversity plots had higher plant growth, albedo, canopy water content and lower surface temperature, indicating clear effects of management treatments on grassland ecosystem processes influencing surface–atmosphere feedbacks of mass and energy.

The coherent responses of multiple airborne remote sensing indices illustrate potential cobenefits of grassland restoration practices that enhance ecosystem productivity and biodiversity and mitigate climate change through surface–atmosphere feedbacks, offering a new strategy to address the challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change in grassland ecosystems.