About

Laureano Gherardi is an Assistant Professor and Assistant Plant Ecologist at the Rausser College of Natural Resources, specializing in Plant Ecology at multiple scales. His research focuses on examining above- and below-ground responses of plants to Global Change stressors, contributing to the understanding of ecosystem responses to environmental challenges. Gherardi's work involves investigating plant responses within the context of ecosystem sciences, and he maintains an active research profile with publications accessible through his Google Scholar profile. He is based at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is involved in the Environmental Science, Policy & Management program.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Agronomy
• Geography
• Agroforestry
• Mathematics
• Soil science
• Environmental resource management
• Physics
• Geology
• Atmospheric sciences
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Precipitation variability interacts with mean precipitation to restructure a semiarid grassland community

  Ecology · 2026-04-01

  article

  Climate forecasts project change not only in the mean of climate variables but also in their variance. If these dual changes interact, then future ecological dynamics will be difficult to predict using current experimental approaches, which typically change the mean or impose a single extreme event, such as drought. We designed a new field experiment to factorially reduce mean precipitation and increase its interannual variability. Across 4 years, drier, more variable precipitation additively reduced aboveground primary productivity by 48%-69% and interactively reduced the dominant plant species, but had no effect on the plant species predicted to dominate in the future, which could lead to state transition. Drier, more variable precipitation also interactively reduced biodiversity more than either climate factor alone, with 37%-42% fewer plant species than under ambient conditions, a pattern that matched declining richness during the past 20 years of ongoing climate change. Drier, more variable precipitation restructured the composition and spatiotemporal variation of the plant community. Altered precipitation mean or variance affected 14% of plant species, with eight species sensitive to the mean × variance interaction. Results suggest that future forecasts of plant community structure may be inadequate if they fail to incorporate climate mean × variance interactions.

  PublisherDOI

• Precipitation variability interacts with mean precipitation to restructure a semi-arid grassland community

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  Climate forecasts project change not only in the mean of climate variables but also in their variance. If these dual changes interact, then future ecological dynamics will be difficult to predict using current experimental approaches, which typically change the mean or impose a single extreme event, such as drought. In a semi-arid grassland in central New Mexico, we designed a new field experiment to factorially reduce mean precipitation and increase its interannual variability. Across four years (2019-2023), drier, more variable precipitation additively reduced aboveground primary productivity of the plant community by 48-69%. Drier plus more variable precipitation interactively reduced the dominant plant species, blue grama grass, but had no effect on the plant species predicted to dominate the ecosystem in the future, which could lead to state transition. Drier, more variable precipitation also interactively reduced plant biodiversity more than either climate change factor alone, with 37-42% fewer plant species than under ambient conditions, a pattern that matched declining richness during the past 20 years of ongoing climate change. Drier, more variable precipitation restructured the composition and spatiotemporal variation of the plant community. Altered precipitation mean or variance affected 14% of plant species, with eight species sensitive to the mean × variance interaction. Results suggest that future forecasts of plant community structure may be inadequate if they fail to incorporate climate mean × variance interactions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Soil Moisture Buffers the Impact of Precipitation Variability on Ecosystem Productivity

  Water Resources Research · 2026-03-01

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Water availability governs ecosystem productivity, yet estimates of vegetation sensitivity to water can differ greatly depending on whether the sensitivity is examined spatially or temporally. In particular, the spatial sensitivity is often reported to be much stronger than temporal sensitivities, leading to highly uncertain projections of ecosystem responses to future climate change when using space‐for‐time substitution. The large difference between spatial and temporal sensitivities remains unexplained. Prior research, however, primarily relied on precipitation as the water availability proxy, whereas vegetation responds to soil moisture. Here, we combined satellite estimates of vegetation productivity with soil moisture data across water‐limited ecosystems of the continental United States (CONUS) to identify a convergent sensitivity of productivity to water availability. Using precipitation, we show that temporal sensitivity is 66% lower than spatial sensitivity overall. Our analysis identified the cause of the difference to be primarily driven by the seasonal variability of water availability, rooting depth, and soil properties. When using soil moisture instead of precipitation, we observed widespread convergence in the spatial and temporal sensitivities—that is, the two sensitivities became much more similar in magnitude across all water‐limited ecosystems within CONUS. These results show that overlooking soil hydrology can inflate perceived discrepancies between spatial and temporal vegetation sensitivities, leading to biased projections of ecosystem dynamics under future hydro‐climatic change.

  PublisherDOI

• Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity

  Science · 2025-10-16 · 34 citations

  articleOpen access

  As droughts become longer and more intense, impacts on terrestrial primary productivity are expected to increase progressively. Yet, some ecosystems appear to acclimate to multiyear drought, with constant or diminishing reductions in productivity as drought duration increases. We quantified the combined effects of drought duration and intensity on aboveground productivity in 74 grasslands and shrublands distributed globally. Ecosystem acclimation with multiyear drought was observed overall, except when droughts were extreme (i.e., ≤1-in-100-year likelihood of occurrence). Productivity losses after four consecutive years of extreme drought increased by ~2.5-fold compared with those of the first year. These results portend a foundational shift in ecosystem behavior if drought duration and intensity increase, from maintenance of reduced functioning over time to progressive and profound losses of productivity when droughts are extreme.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Soil buffers the impact of precipitation variability on ecosystem function

  2025-07-03

  preprintOpen access

  Water availability governs ecosystem productivity, yet estimates of vegetation sensitivity to water can differ greatly depending on whether the sensitivity is examined spatially or temporally. In particular, the spatial sensitivity is often reported to be much stronger than temporal sensitivities, leading to highly uncertain projections of ecosystem responses to future climate change. The large difference between spatial and temporal sensitivities remains unexplained. Prior research, however, primarily relied on precipitation as the water availability proxy, whereas vegetation responds to soil moisture. Here, we combined satellite estimates of vegetation productivity with soil moisture data across water-limited ecosystems of the continental United States (CONUS) to identify a convergent sensitivity of productivity to water availability. Using precipitation, we show that temporal sensitivity is 66% lower than spatial sensitivity overall. Our analysis identified the cause of the difference to be primarily driven by the seasonal variability of water availability, rooting depth, and soil properties. When using soil moisture instead of precipitation, we observed widespread convergence in the spatial and temporal sensitivities across all water-limited ecosystems within CONUS. These results show that overlooking soil hydrology can inflate perceived discrepancies between spatial and temporal vegetation sensitivities, leading to biased projections of ecosystem dynamics under future hydro-climatic change.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Interactions among nutrients govern the global grassland biomass–precipitation relationship

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-04-11 · 11 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Ecosystems are experiencing changing global patterns of mean annual precipitation (MAP) and enrichment with multiple nutrients that potentially colimit plant biomass production. In grasslands, mean aboveground plant biomass is closely related to MAP, but how this relationship changes after enrichment with multiple nutrients remains unclear. We hypothesized the global biomass-MAP relationship becomes steeper with an increasing number of added nutrients, with increases in steepness corresponding to the form of interaction among added nutrients and with increased mediation by changes in plant community diversity. We measured aboveground plant biomass production and species diversity in 71 grasslands on six continents representing the global span of grassland MAP, diversity, management, and soils. We fertilized all sites with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium with micronutrients in all combinations to identify which nutrients limited biomass at each site. As hypothesized, fertilizing with one, two, or three nutrients progressively steepened the global biomass-MAP relationship. The magnitude of the increase in steepness corresponded to whether sites were not limited by nitrogen or phosphorus, were limited by either one, or were colimited by both in additive, or synergistic forms. Unexpectedly, we found only weak evidence for mediation of biomass-MAP relationships by plant community diversity because relationships of species richness, evenness, and beta diversity to MAP and to biomass were weak or opposing. Site-level properties including baseline biomass production, soils, and management explained little variation in biomass-MAP relationships. These findings reveal multiple nutrient colimitation as a defining feature of the global grassland biomass-MAP relationship.

  PublisherDOI

• Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity

  BFH: ARBOR · 2025-10-16

  articleOpen access

  The increasing severity and frequency of drought pose serious threats to plant species worldwide. Yet, we lack a general understanding of how various intensities of droughts affect plant traits, in particular root traits. Here, using a meta-analysis of drought experiments (997 effect sizes from 76 papers), we investigate the effects of various intensities of droughts on some of the key morphological root traits. Our results show that root length, root mean diameter, and root area decline when drought is of severe or extreme intensity, whereas severe drought increases root tissue density. These patterns are most pronounced in trees compared to other plant functional groups. Moreover, the long duration of severe drought decreases root length in grasses and root mean diameter in legumes. The decline in root length and root diameter due to severe drought in trees was independent of drought duration. Our results suggest that morphological root traits respond strongly to increasing intensity of drought, which further depends on drought duration and may vary among plant functional groups. Our meta-analysis highlights the need for future studies to consider the interactive effects of drought intensity and drought duration for a better understanding of variable plant responses to drought.

  PublisherDOI

• Widespread underestimation of rain-induced soil carbon emissions from global drylands

  Nature Geoscience · 2025-07-31 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Dryland carbon fluxes, particularly those driven by ecosystem respiration, are highly sensitive to water availability and rain pulses. However, the magnitude of rain-induced carbon emissions remains unclear globally. Here we quantify the impact of rain-pulse events on the carbon balance of global drylands and characterize their spatiotemporal controls. Using eddy-covariance observations of carbon, water and energy fluxes from 34 dryland sites worldwide, we produce an inventory of over 1,800 manually identified rain-induced CO 2 pulse events. Based on this inventory, a machine learning algorithm is developed to automatically detect rain-induced CO 2 pulse events. Our findings show that existing partitioning methods underestimate ecosystem respiration and photosynthesis by up to 30% during rain-pulse events, which annually contribute 16.9 ± 2.8% of ecosystem respiration and 9.6 ± 2.2% of net ecosystem productivity. We show that the carbon loss intensity correlates most strongly with annual productivity, aridity and soil pH. Finally, we identify a universal decay rate of rain-induced CO 2 pulses and use it to bias-correct respiration estimates. Our research highlights the importance of rain-induced carbon emissions for the carbon balance of global drylands and suggests that ecosystem models may largely underrepresent the influence of rain pulses on the carbon cycle of drylands.

  PublisherDOI

• Drivers of woody dominance across global drylands

  Science Advances · 2024-10-11 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  Increases in the abundance of woody species have been reported to affect the provisioning of ecosystem services in drylands worldwide. However, it is virtually unknown how multiple biotic and abiotic drivers, such as climate, grazing, and fire, interact to determine woody dominance across global drylands. We conducted a standardized field survey in 304 plots across 25 countries to assess how climatic features, soil properties, grazing, and fire affect woody dominance in dryland rangelands. Precipitation, temperature, and grazing were key determinants of tree and shrub dominance. The effects of grazing were determined not solely by grazing pressure but also by the dominant livestock species. Interactions between soil, climate, and grazing and differences in responses to these factors between trees and shrubs were key to understanding changes in woody dominance. Our findings suggest that projected changes in climate and grazing pressure may increase woody dominance in drylands, altering their structure and functioning.

  PublisherDOI

• The influence of belowground nematode herbivory on carbon allocation in drought-prone ecosystems

  2024-03-08

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  To understand carbon dynamics and how it is affected by ongoing climate change, we need a better appreciation of the belowground ecological interactions driving plant allocation patterns and ecosystem carbon fixation. It has become increasingly clear that belowground root inputs contribute significantly more to soil carbon sequestration than aboveground plant inputs. Yet, current understanding of the role of belowground root herbivory in ecosystem carbon dynamics is weaker than that of aboveground herbivory. We addressed this gap by merging three complementary and novel areas of research, namely testing how: (1) biotic interactions between plants and nematode herbivores affect belowground biomass allocation in grasses; (2) how these biotic interactions and their consequences for biomass allocation are modified by a pervasive perturbation, namely drought, which is becoming more intense and frequent; and (3) how belowground responses vary across contrasting ecosystems. Results of complementary controlled and multi-site field experiments showed that: (1) nematode root herbivory modulates the relationship between water availability and belowground biomass allocation; (2) drought-induced increases in nematode root herbivory impede plants from increasing biomass allocation to roots under drought; and (3) these nematode effects are greater in magnitude in mesic compared to semiarid and arid grasslands. These findings suggest that the fate of carbon in mesic ecosystems under increasing drought frequency is highly influenced by nematode herbivores in the soil, and encourage investigations into the unknown consequences for soil carbon formation and persistence.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Osvaldo E. Sala

  Arizona State University

  32 shared

• Laura Yahdjian

  Agricultural Plant Physiology and Ecology Research Institute

  27 shared

• Oumarou Malam Issa

  Sorbonne Université

  15 shared

• Scott L. Collins

  University of New Mexico

  10 shared

• Gastón R. Oñatibia

  University of Buenos Aires

  10 shared

• Seth M. Munson

  Astrogeology Science Center

  10 shared

• Debra P. C. Peters

  Agricultural Research Service

  9 shared

• André L.C. Franco

  9 shared

Education

• PhD, School of Life Sciences

  Arizona State University

  2014

• Master of Sciences, School of Life Sciences

  Arizona State University

  2011

• Ingeniero Agronomo, Facultad de Agronomía

  Universidad de Buenos Aires

  2006