1. Nitrogen and phosphorus constrain the CO2 fertilization of global plant biomass
- Author
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Caspar J. van Lissa, Benjamin D. Stocker, Oskar Franklin, Peter B. Reich, I. Colin Prentice, Kevin Van Sundert, Alan F. Talhelm, Josep Peñuelas, Mark J. Hovenden, Christina Kaiser, Takayoshi Koike, Paul C. D. Newton, Joshua B. Fisher, Robert B. Jackson, Sara Vicca, Klaus Winter, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Marcel R. Hoosbeek, H. Wayne Polley, Makoto Watanabe, Christoph Müller, Ian McCallum, Lucas A. Cernusak, Bruce A. Hungate, Christopher B. Field, Victor O. Leshyk, Trevor F. Keenan, Dana M. Blumenthal, Yi Y. Liu, Wolfgang Viechtbauer, César Terrer, Shilong Piao, AXA Research Fund, Commission of the European Communities, Psychiatrie & Neuropsychologie, and RS: MHeNs School for Mental Health and Neuroscience
- Subjects
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Environmental Studies ,01 natural sciences ,Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience ,CARBON ,Human fertilization ,Nutrient ,Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences ,0502 Environmental Science and Management ,2. Zero hunger ,0303 health sciences ,Biomass (ecology) ,Physics ,FOREST PRODUCTIVITY ,Vegetation ,Nitrogen ,Chemistry ,Physical Sciences ,GROWTH ,0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience ,Ecosystem ecology ,Life Sciences & Biomedicine ,Bodemscheikunde en Chemische Bodemkwaliteit ,Environmental Science and Management ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Environmental Sciences & Ecology ,Environmental Science (miscellaneous) ,Atmospheric Sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,ENHANCEMENT ,Life Science ,ATMOSPHERIC CO2 ,Biology ,METAANALYSIS ,030304 developmental biology ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Science & Technology ,WIMEK ,Phosphorus ,Biogeochemistry ,MOJAVE DESERT ,15. Life on land ,CLIMATE ,Climate Action ,Agronomy ,chemistry ,13. Climate action ,Environmental science ,0401 Atmospheric Sciences ,ELEVATED CO2 ,Environmental Sciences ,Soil Chemistry and Chemical Soil Quality ,Social Sciences (miscellaneous) ,RESPONSES - Abstract
Elevated CO2 (eCO(2)) experiments provide critical information to quantify the effects of rising CO2 on vegetation 1-6 . Many eCO(2) experiments suggest that nutrient limitations modulate the local magnitude of the eCO(2) effect on plant biomass(1,3,5), but the global extent of these limitations has not been empirically quantified, complicating projections of the capacity of plants to take up CO27,9. Here, we present a data-driven global quantification of the eCO(2) effect on biomass based on 138 eCO(2) experiments. The strength of CO2 fertilization is primarily driven by nitrogen (N) in similar to 65% of global vegetation and by phosphorus (P) in similar to 25% of global vegetation, with N- or P-limitation modulated by mycorrhizal association. Our approach suggests that CO2 levels expected by 2100 can potentially enhance plant biomass by 12 +/- 3% above current values, equivalent to 59 +/- 13 PgC. The globalscale response to eCO(2) we derive from experiments is similar to past changes in greenness(9) and bio-mass(10) with rising CO2, suggesting that CO2 will continue to stimulate plant biomass in the future despite the constraining effect of soil nutrients. Our research reconciles conflicting evidence on CO2 fertilization across scales and provides an empirical estimate of the biomass sensitivity to eCO(2) that may help to constrain climate projections.
- Published
- 2019