A new paper from the Sala Lab published today in Ecology (see Publications)! Lara Reichmann is the lead author of this important work “Precipitation legacies in desert-grassland primary production occur through previous-year tiller density” that clearly showed the existence of legacies from previous years and documented the mechanism behind them. Legacies in aboveground net primary production were similar in absolute value for dry-wet and wet-dry precipitation transitions, and their magnitude was a function of the difference between previous and current-year precipitation. Tiller density accounted for 40% of legacy variability, while nitrogen and carry-over water availability showed no effect. Legacies of previous year accounted for a large fraction (20%) of inter-annual variability in production.
