Grazing-induced legacy effects enhance plant adaption to drought by larger root allocation plasticity

Aims To explore whether grazing-induced legacy effects on plants could benefit plants adaptation to drought. Methods A water-controlled experiment was conducted in the greenhouse, which with Agropyron cristatum and Carex korshinskyi collected from free-grazing and enclosed plots on a typical grassland in Inner Mongolia. Important Findings We found that A. cristatum and C. korshinskyi collected from the free-grazing plot were less affected by drought in terms of ramet biomass, ramet number and total biomass than those collected from the enclosed plot. The enhanced adaptation to drought for plants collected from the free-grazing plot should partly be ascribed to the larger root biomass allocation plasticity under drought treatment. Our findings suggest that grazing management can be used to improve the adaptation of grassland plants to climate change.