Ecosystem Response to Elevated Tropospheric Carbon Dioxide and Ozone is Regulated by Plant-­Microbe Interactions in Soil

Technical Report · Fri May 30 04:00:00 EDT 2014

OSTI ID:1015204

Zak, Donald R. ^[1]

---

1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); The Regents of the University of Michigan

Human activity has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and ozone O₃) in the Earth’s lower atmosphere, and each of these trace gases has the potential to modify photosynthesis and plant growth across broad geographic regions, albeit in diametrically opposing ways. For example, higher-than-ambient concentrations of atmospheric stimulate photosynthesis and plant growth (Curtis & Wang 1998), whereas elevated O₃ generally has the opposite effect (Krupa et al. 2000; Felzer et al. 2004). By the end of this century, nearly one-half of the Earth’s forests will be growing in an atmosphere with elevated concentrations of these trace gases (Albritton et al. 2001; Fowler et al. 1998, 1999). Nonetheless, we presently do not have the ability to predict the interactive effects of CO₂ and O₃ on a wide array of biological processes from the molecular to ecosystem level. Our DoE-supported research has focused on developing and testing a conceptual model that is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which elevated ground-level CO₂ and O₃ will alter the flow of energy and nutrients through soil food webs as well as entire terrestrial ecosystems. Our approach spans a hierarchy of biological organization from the molecular to the ecosystem level, and we argue that biochemical responses can be scaled to predict ecosystem-level patterns of C and N cycling in an atmosphere enriched with anthropogenic CO₂ and O₃.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-93ER61666
• OSTI ID: 1015204
• Report Number(s): DOE-93ER--61666/final
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES