How grasslands are managed will determine their ability to adapt to increased water scarcity under climate change

Grasslands are highly dynamic ecosystems that adapt to environmental drivers such as climate, soil properties and anthropogenic management. However, the belowground response and adaptation of grassland communities to environmental drivers are poorly understood. Here, we investigate differences in the temporal dynamics of root water uptake, its depth pattern and the evolution of plant-available soil water storage between three different grassland management types and in two different climate treatments (control and future). The climate scenarios included treatments with and without a precipitation manipulation that partially shifts the precipitation from summer to spring and autumn. Soil moisture measurements were carried out at 6 depths up to 90 cm on three land use types (i) extensively and (ii) intensively managed grassland and (iii) extensive pasture at the Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF) in Central Germany. Afterwards, root water uptake was estimated from diurnal variations in soil water content. We found that the grassland vegetation, in general, extracts water to depths of up to 90 cm during the growing season and can go even deeper. Extensively managed grasslands in the future climate scenario had increased root water uptake depths even in spring when water was not limiting indicating an adaptation to changing rainfall patterns. In contrast, more intensively managed grasslands could not compensate for greater water limitation with deeper root water uptake. Root water uptake depths during summer differed between the management types only in the future climate scenario, with drier conditions, along with the management intensity: The more intense, the shallower the uptake. This demonstrates that the ability to adapt to changing climate depends on management. Cumulative atmospheric water deficit was the main driver of root water uptake depth until the first mowing while ecosystem structure (vegetation height) and soil properties (plant available water at the beginning of the vegetation period) affect that relationship.