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Amazon forest response to CO2 fertilization dependent on plant phosphorus acquisition

Journal Article · · Nature Geoscience
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [5];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [11];  [16];  [17];  [18] more »;  [19];  [20];  [1];  [21];  [22];  [23] « less
  1. Technische Univ. of Munich (Germany). Land Surface–Atmosphere Interactions
  2. Univ. of Sao Paulo (Brazil). Dept. of Biology
  3. National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Manaus (Brazil); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Antwerp, Antwerp (Belgium). Dept. of Biology
  4. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, Saint-Aubin (France); Universität Augsburg, Augsburg (Germany). Lehrstuhl für Physische Geographie mit Schwerpunkt Klimaforschung
  5. Western Sydney Univ., Sydney, New South Wales (Australia). Hawkesbury Inst. for the Environment
  6. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Canberra, (Australia)
  7. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg (Austria)
  8. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  9. The Netherlands Alterra Wageningen, Wageningen (The Netherlands)
  10. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford (United Kingdom); Univ. of Exeter, Exeter (United Kingdom). College of Life and Environmental Sciences
  11. ORNL
  12. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Canberra, Australia
  13. National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA)
  14. Wageningen University, Netherlands
  15. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia
  16. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
  17. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
  18. Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, Brazil
  19. Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (Australia). Climate Change Research Centre; ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia)
  20. ORNL; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Inst.
  21. National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Manaus (Brazil)
  22. Univ. of Sao Paulo (Brazil). Dept. of Botany
  23. Univ. of Exeter, Exeter (United Kingdom). College of Life and Environmental Sciences; Univ. of Hong Kong (China). Inst. of Environment, Energy and Sustainability
+ Show Author Affiliations
Global terrestrial models currently predict that the Amazon rainforest will continue to act as a carbon sink in the future, primarily owing to the rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. Soil phosphorus impoverishment in parts of the Amazon basin largely controls its functioning, but the role of phosphorus availability has not been considered in global model ensembles—for example, during the Fifth Climate Model Intercomparison Project. Here we simulate the planned free-air CO2 enrichment experiment AmazonFACE with an ensemble of 14 terrestrial ecosystem models. We show that phosphorus availability reduces the projected CO2-induced biomass carbon growth by about 50% to 79 ± 63 g C m-2 yr-1 over 15 years compared to estimates from carbon and carbon–nitrogen models. Our results suggest that the resilience of the region to climate change may be much less than previously assumed. Variation in the biomass carbon response among the phosphorus-enabled models is considerable, ranging from 5 to 140 g C m-2 yr-1, owing to the contrasting plant phosphorus use and acquisition strategies considered among the models. The Amazon forest response thus depends on the interactions and relative contributions of the phosphorus acquisition and use strategies across individuals, and to what extent these processes can be upregulated under elevated CO2.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1564155
Journal Information:
Nature Geoscience, Journal Name: Nature Geoscience Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 12; ISSN 1752-0894
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (7)

The potential for structural errors in emergent constraints journal January 2021
CoupModel (v6.0): an ecosystem model for coupled phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon dynamics – evaluated against empirical data from a climatic and fertility gradient in Sweden journal February 2021
Asynchronous carbon sink saturation in African and Amazonian tropical forests journal March 2020
The fate of carbon in a mature forest under carbon dioxide enrichment journal April 2020
A climate‐change vulnerability and adaptation assessment for Brazil's protected areas journal April 2020
Microbial carbon limitation: The need for integrating microorganisms into our understanding of ecosystem carbon cycling journal April 2020
Digging deeper? Biomass allocation patterns in trees and lianas in tropical seasonal forests journal May 2020

Figures / Tables (1)

Table 1(p. 32)table Table 1

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