Below‐ground‐mediated and phase‐dependent processes drive nitrogen‐evoked community changes in grasslands

Enhanced deposition of atmospheric nitrogen (N) leads to loss of plant diversity in grassland ecosystems. Numerous theories have provided potential explanations for the negative effects of N enrichment on plant diversity. However, the relative importance of each mechanism and the time‐scales of responses for the different functional groups remain unclear. We investigated the temporal responses of plant community in a temperate steppe to N...