Grazing and spring snow counteract the effects of warming on an alpine plant community in Tibet through effects on the dominant species

Although studies have investigated the independent effects of warming, snow, and grazing on alpine plant community properties - including plant species richness, evenness, and diversity - the interactive effects of these climate and grazing factors have not been addressed experimentally in cold systems. We investigate the effects of these climate change and grazing factors using 5 years of data collected from a relatively long-term (2009-2015), fully-factorial field experiment in an alpine meadow ecosystem on the central Tibetan Plateau. Specifically, we investigate: 1) how experimental warming, spring snow addition, and yak grazing independently and interactively affect plant community properties, including diversity metrics and relative contributions of different plant life forms to the total plant cover, and 2) how the changes in plant community properties are associated with the proportional cover of the dominant plant species, Kobresia pygmaea within the total vegetation cover. We found that warming reduced species richness and increased species evenness and the proportional cover of shrubs within the total vegetation cover. Snow addition also increased species evenness. Grazing increased the proportional cover of K. pygmaea within the total vegetation cover, while decreasing that of grasses. Grazing also counteracted warming-induced increases in shrubs. Treatment-induced changes in K. pygmaea cover were strongly correlated with the indices of plant community properties and were generally in the opposite direction of changes in species evenness and diversity. We conclude that the projected increases in spring snowstorms and maintaining moderate levels of grazing can counteract some warming effects on the plant community. Moreover, the performance of the dominant species can regulate plant community responses to climate change and livestock grazing on the central Tibetan Plateau.