Abstract Various restoration measures have been implemented to restore degraded grasslands, demonstrating generally positive effects on plant productivity. Temporal stability is essential for adequate delivery and maintenance of ecosystem services; yet, how it changes with restoration of ecosystem structure and function and the underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently studied. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 331 multi‐year comparisons across 22 degraded grassland sites in China to assess the impacts of nine restoration measures on plant above‐ground net primary productivity (ANPP), species richness and their temporal stabilities. The restoration measures included fertilization alone, enclosure, reseeding, ploughing, irrigation and their combinations with fertilization. Ecological restoration generally enhanced the ANPP of degraded grasslands in China but had little impact on the temporal stability and species richness. Stability responses varied depending on restoration measures and grassland type, where they were reduced by fertilization, ploughing and their combination, increased by irrigation and its combination with fertilization and remained unaffected by enclosure and reseeding. The stability of meadow steppe was more sensitive to ecological restoration than other grassland types. Furthermore, fertilization showed a less negative effect on community stability in severely degraded grasslands, whereas long‐term enclosure enhanced community stability of degraded grassland with higher precipitation amounts. Changes in species dominance (either in biomass or abundance) and the stability of dominant species (with relative biomass or abundance >10% of the community) determined grassland community stability under restoration. Synthesis and applications . Our findings demonstrate that fertilization destabilizes plant productivity in degraded grassland, whereas long‐term enclosure enhances community stability. The response of community stability to restoration is primarily driven by plant dominance and dominant species stability. Furthermore, restoration effects on community stability are mediated by environmental conditions, grassland type, degradation severity and restoration duration, which deserve more attention in restoration management.
Yu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.