Abstract

Increasing atmospheric CO2 stimulates photosynthesis which can increase net primary production (NPP), but at longer timescales may not necessarily increase plant biomass. Here we analyse the four decade-long CO2-enrichment experiments in woody ecosystems that measured total NPP and biomass. CO2 enrichment increased biomass increment by 1.05 ± 0.26 kg C m−2 over a full decade, a 29.1 ± 11.7% stimulation of biomass gain in these early-secondary-succession temperate ecosystems. This response is predictable by combining the CO2 response of NPP (0.16 ± 0.03 kg C m−2 y−1) and the CO2-independent, linear slope between biomass increment and cumulative NPP (0.55 ± 0.17). An ensemble of terrestrial ecosystem models fail to predict both terms correctly. Allocation to wood was a driver of across-site, and across-model, response variability and together with CO2-independence of biomass retention highlights the value of understanding drivers of wood allocation under ambient conditions to correctly interpret and predict CO2 responses.

It is unclear whether CO2-stimulation of photosynthesis can propagate through slower ecosystem processes and lead to long-term increases in terrestrial carbon. Here the authors show that CO2-stimulation of photosynthesis leads to a 30% increase in forest regrowth over a decade of CO2 enrichment.

Details

Title
Decadal biomass increment in early secondary succession woody ecosystems is increased by CO2 enrichment
Author
Walker, Anthony P 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; De Kauwe Martin G 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Medlyn, Belinda E 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zaehle Sönke 4 ; Iversen, Colleen M 1 ; Asao Shinichi 5 ; Guenet Bertrand 6 ; Harper, Anna 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hickler, Thomas 8 ; Hungate, Bruce A 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Jain, Atul K 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Luo Yiqi 9 ; Lu Xingjie 11 ; Lu, Meng 12 ; Luus Kristina 13 ; Patrick, Megonigal J 14   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Oren, Ram 15 ; Ryan, Edmund 16   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Shu Shijie 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Talhelm, Alan 17 ; Ying-Ping, Wang 18   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Warren, Jeffrey M 1 ; Werner, Christian 19 ; Xia Jianyang 20   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bai, Yang 1 ; Zak, Donald R 21   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Norby, Richard J 1 

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge, USA (GRID:grid.135519.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 0446 2659) 
 University of New South Wales, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Sydney, Australia (GRID:grid.1005.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 4902 0432) 
 Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Penrith, Australia (GRID:grid.1029.a) (ISNI:0000 0000 9939 5719) 
 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Biogeochemical Integration Department, Jena, Germany (GRID:grid.419500.9) (ISNI:0000 0004 0491 7318) 
 Colorado State University, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Fort Collins, USA (GRID:grid.47894.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8083) 
 Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France (GRID:grid.460789.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 4910 6535) 
 University of Exeter, College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences, Laver Building, Exeter, UK (GRID:grid.8391.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8024) 
 Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt/Main, Germany (GRID:grid.8391.3); Goethe-University, Department of Physical Geography, Geosciences, Frankfurt, Germany (GRID:grid.7839.5) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9721) 
 Northern Arizona University, Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Flagstaff, USA (GRID:grid.261120.6) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8040) 
10  University of Illinois, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Urbana, USA (GRID:grid.35403.31) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9991) 
11  CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Victoria, Australia (GRID:grid.261120.6) 
12  Yunnan University, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Kunming, China (GRID:grid.440773.3); Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, USA (GRID:grid.419533.9) (ISNI:0000 0000 8612 0361) 
13  Dublin Institute of Technology, Centre for Applied Data Analytics Research (CeADAR), Dublin, Ireland (GRID:grid.33695.3a) (ISNI:0000000107203335) 
14  Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, USA (GRID:grid.419533.9) (ISNI:0000 0000 8612 0361) 
15  Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment & Pratt School of Engineering, Durham, USA (GRID:grid.26009.3d) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7961); University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, Helsinki, Finland (GRID:grid.7737.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 0410 2071) 
16  University of Manchester, School of Mathematics, Manchester, UK (GRID:grid.5379.8) (ISNI:0000000121662407) 
17  University of Idaho, Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences, Moscow, USA (GRID:grid.266456.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 2284 9900) 
18  CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Victoria, Australia (GRID:grid.266456.5) 
19  Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt/Main, Germany (GRID:grid.135519.a) 
20  East China Normal University, Tiantong National Station of Forest Ecosystem and Research, Center for Global Change and Ecological Forecasting, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai, China (GRID:grid.22069.3f) (ISNI:0000 0004 0369 6365); Institute of Eco-Chongming (IEC), Shanghai, China (GRID:grid.22069.3f) 
21  University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ann Arbor, USA (GRID:grid.214458.e) (ISNI:0000000086837370) 
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2180982314
Copyright
This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.