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Title: Ecosystem responses to elevated CO 2 governed by plant–soil interactions and the cost of nitrogen acquisition

Journal Article · · New Phytologist
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14872· OSTI ID:1408152
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [1]
  1. AXA Chair Programme in Biosphere and Climate Impacts Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road Ascot SL5 7PY UK
  2. Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems) Department of Biology University of Antwerp Wilrijk 2610 Belgium
  3. AXA Chair Programme in Biosphere and Climate Impacts Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road Ascot SL5 7PY UK, CREAF Cerdanyola del Vallès Catalonia 08193 Spain
  4. Center for Ecosystem Science and Society Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ 86011 USA, Department of Biological Sciences Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ 86011 USA
  5. Department of Biology Indiana University Bloomington IN 47405 USA
  6. Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St Paul MN 55108 USA, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University Penrith NSW 2751 Australia
  7. Department of Biology Boston University Boston MA 02215 USA

Contents Summary 507 I. Introduction 507 II. The return on investment approach 508 III. CO 2 response spectrum 510 IV. Discussion 516 Acknowledgements 518 References 518 Summary Land ecosystems sequester on average about a quarter of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions. It has been proposed that nitrogen (N) availability will exert an increasingly limiting effect on plants’ ability to store additional carbon (C) under rising CO 2 , but these mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we review findings from elevated CO 2 experiments using a plant economics framework, highlighting how ecosystem responses to elevated CO 2 may depend on the costs and benefits of plant interactions with mycorrhizal fungi and symbiotic N‐fixing microbes. We found that N‐acquisition efficiency is positively correlated with leaf‐level photosynthetic capacity and plant growth, and negatively with soil C storage. Plants that associate with ectomycorrhizal fungi and N‐fixers may acquire N at a lower cost than plants associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. However, the additional growth in ectomycorrhizal plants is partly offset by decreases in soil C pools via priming. Collectively, our results indicate that predictive models aimed at quantifying C cycle feedbacks to global change may be improved by treating N as a resource that can be acquired by plants in exchange for energy, with different costs depending on plant interactions with microbial symbionts.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0006916; SC0012288; SC0010632
OSTI ID:
1408152
Journal Information:
New Phytologist, Journal Name: New Phytologist Vol. 217 Journal Issue: 2; ISSN 0028-646X
Publisher:
Wiley-BlackwellCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 128 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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