The strong control of temperature on the timing of plant phenology is expected to cause substantial shifts in flowering times under climate change. Yet, the sensitivity of flowering phenology in dryland regions to climate change, and the potential implications for community composition, remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the effects of climate warming and nitrogen addition on flowering phenology of four C3 plants and two C4 plants and explore cascading effects on shifts in C3 vs C4 plant dominance in a 17-year field experiment in a desert steppe. Across the last 10 years of the experiment (2013–2022), we found that warming had a greater effect on phenological shifts in C3 than in C4 plants. Warming significantly advanced the flowering time of C3 plants by 4.3 ± 0.1 days and of C4 plants by 2.8 ± 0.1 days. Warming also reduced the duration of flowering by 1.8 ± 0.1 days and decreased the dominance of C3 plants compared to C4 plants (P＜0.05). Nitrogen addition extended the duration of flowering of C4 plants by 3.4 ± 0.2 days and increased their relative dominance, while having no effect on C3 plants. Structural equation models highlighted that these phenological responses were influenced by soil temperature and soil water availability. Our results show the divergent phenological responses between C3 and C4 plants under global changes, predicting shifts in dominance between these plant types in temperate dryland ecosystems.

Maintenance of a desirable mixture of shrubs and grasses is a key issue in sustainable grazing management. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of long-term sheep grazing on desert steppe shrubs. Based on a long-term controlled sheep stocking rate experiment in a desert steppe of north China, combined with long-term random sampling monitoring of above-ground vegetation standing crop (14 years) and short-term systematic sampling monitoring of vegetation cover and individual characteristics of shrubs (3 years), we analyzed plant community changes, the current situation of shrubs and the response of individual shrub characteristics to stocking rate. We found that low stocking rates have increased the cumulative above-ground standing crop of shrubs and herbaceous plants, but the cumulative above-ground standing crop of shrubs under high grazing rates tends to be flat. The cover and height of four shrub species generally showed a decrease with increasing stocking rate, while the response of the four shrubs to the stocking rate gradient varied. Among four shrub species, Artemisia frigida was the most sensitive to stocking rate, followed by Ceratoides latens and Caragana microphylla, while Kochia prostrata was relatively insensitive to stocking rate. These results suggest that grassland managers can use an appropriate stocking rate to maintain desirable plant community composition and configuration in the temperate grassland.