Search

Greenhouse gas emissions and land use change - from deforestation, forest degradation and agricultural intensification - are contributing to climate change and biodiversity loss. Important landbased strategies such as planting trees or growing bioenergy crops (with carbon capture and storage) are needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and to enhance biodiversity. The integrated Land Ecosystems Atmospheric Processes Study (iLEAPS) is an international knowledge-exchange and capacity-building network, specialising in ecosystems and their role in controlling the exchange of water, energy and chemical compounds between the land surface and the atmosphere. We outline priority directions for land-atmosphere interaction research and its contribution to the sustainable development agenda.

Optimal stomatal theory predicts that stomata operate to maximise photosynthesis (A(net)) and minimise transpirational water loss to achieve optimal intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE). We tested whether this theory can predict stomatal responses to elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO(2)), and whether it can capture differences in responsiveness among woody plant functional types (PFTs). We conducted a meta-analysis of tree studies of the effect of eCO(2) on iWUE and its components A(net) and stomatal conductance (g(s)). We compared three PFTs, using the unified stomatal optimisation (USO) model to account for confounding effects of leaf-air vapour pressure difference (D). We expected smaller g(s), but greater A(net), responses to eCO(2) in gymnosperms compared with angiosperm PFTs. We found that iWUE increased in proportion to increasing eCO(2) in all PFTs, and that increases in A(net) had stronger effects than reductions in g(s). The USO model correctly captured stomatal behaviour with eCO(2) across most datasets. The chief difference among PFTs was a lower stomatal slope parameter (g(1)) for the gymnosperm, compared with angiosperm, species. Land surface models can use the USO model to describe stomatal behaviour under changing atmospheric CO2 conditions.

Responses of the terrestrial biosphere to rapidly changing environmental conditions are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. In an effort to reduce this uncertainty, a wide range of global change experiments have been conducted that mimic future conditions in terrestrial ecosystems, manipulating CO2, temperature, and nutrient and water availability. Syntheses of results across experiments provide a more general sense of ecosystem responses to global change, and help to discern the influence of background conditions such as climate and vegetation type in determining global change responses. Several independent syntheses of published data have yielded distinct databases for specific objectives. Such parallel, uncoordinated initiatives carry the risk of producing redundant data collection efforts and have led to contrasting outcomes without clarifying the underlying reason for divergence. These problems could be avoided by creating a publicly available, updatable, curated database. Here, we report on a global effort to collect and curate 57,089 treatment responses across 3644 manipulation experiments at 1145 sites, simulating elevated CO2, warming, nutrient addition, and precipitation changes. In the resulting Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative (MESI) database, effects of experimental global change drivers on carbon and nutrient cycles are included, as well as ancillary data such as background climate, vegetation type, treatment magnitude, duration, and, unique to our database, measured soil properties. Our analysis of the database indicates that most experiments are short term (one or few growing seasons), conducted in the USA, Europe, or China, and that the most abundantly reported variable is aboveground biomass. We provide the most comprehensive multifactor global change database to date, enabling the research community to tackle open research questions, vital to global policymaking. The MESI database, freely accessible at doi.org/10.528

Despite a large number of studies examining the effects of abiotic stress factors on plants, the mechanistic explanations of drought-induced tree mortality remain inconclusive and even less is known about how multiple stressors interact. The role of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) in preventing or postponing drought mortality is gaining attention. Here, we tested the role of NSCs in mitigating the effects of drought and salinity in New Zealand mangroves, Avicennia marina subsp. australasica. We experimentally manipulated plant NSC levels, prior to subjecting them to combinations of drought and salinity. Plant growth and survival rates were 2- and 3-fold higher in the high-NSC (H-NSC) group than in the low-NSC (L-NSC) group under high salinity and drought conditions, respectively. After 12 weeks under high salinity-high drought conditions, the H-NSC group showed higher stem hydraulic conductivity (281 +/- 50 mmol cm(-1) s(-1) MPa-1) compared with the L-NSC group (134 +/- 40 mmol cm(-1) s(-1) MPa-1). Although starch levels remained relatively constant, we found a 20% increase in soluble sugars in the stems of H-NSC group under high drought and high salinity in week 8 compared with week 12. Our results suggest (i) an important role of NSCs in mitigating the effects of low soil water potential caused by drought and salinity, and (ii) sink-limited growth under conditions of combined salinity and drought.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) is increasing, which increases leaf‐scale photosynthesis and intrinsic water‐use efficiency. These direct responses have the potential to increase plant growth, vegetation biomass, and soil organic matter; transferring carbon from the atmosphere into terrestrial ecosystems (a carbon sink). A substantial global terrestrial carbon sink would slow the rate of [CO2] increase and thus climate change. However, ecosystem CO2 responses are complex or confounded by concurrent changes in multiple agents of global change and evidence for a [CO2]‐driven terrestrial carbon sink can appear contradictory. Here we synthesize theory and broad, multidisciplinary evidence for the effects of increasing [CO2] (iCO2) on the global terrestrial carbon sink. Evidence suggests a substantial increase in global photosynthesis since pre‐industrial times. Established theory, supported by experiments, indicates that iCO2 is likely responsible for about half of the increase. Global carbon budgeting, atmospheric data, and forest inventories indicate a historical carbon sink, and these apparent iCO2 responses are high in comparison to experiments and predictions from theory. Plant mortality and soil carbon iCO2 responses are highly uncertain. In conclusion, a range of evidence supports a positive terrestrial carbon sink in response to iCO2, albeit with uncertain magnitude and strong suggestion of a role for additional agents of global change.