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Nitrogen restrictions buffer modeled interactions of water with the carbon cycle
Author(s) -
Huang Yuanyuan,
Gerber Stefan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: biogeosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8961
pISSN - 2169-8953
DOI - 10.1002/2015jg003148
Subject(s) - environmental science , carbon cycle , evapotranspiration , primary production , nitrogen , water cycle , carbon fibers , atmospheric sciences , precipitation , nitrogen cycle , transpiration , ecosystem , carbon sequestration , moisture , chemistry , ecology , photosynthesis , meteorology , composite material , biology , geology , biochemistry , materials science , physics , organic chemistry , composite number
Terrestrial carbon and water cycles are coupled at multiple spatiotemporal scales and are crucial to carbon sequestration. Water related climate extremes, such as drought and intense precipitation, can substantially affect the carbon cycle. Meanwhile, nitrogen is a limiting resource to plant and has therefore the potential to alter the coupling of water and carbon cycles on land. Here we assess the effect of nitrogen limitation on the response of the terrestrial carbon cycle to moisture anomalies using Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's land surface model LM3V‐N. We analyzed the response of three central carbon fluxes: net primary productivity (NPP), heterotrophic respiration ( R h ), and net ecosystem productivity (NEP, the difference between NPP and R h ) and how these fluxes were altered under anomalies of the standardized precipitation and evapotranspiration index (SPEI). We found that globally, the correlations between each of the carbon flux and SPEI depended on the timescale and a strong legacy effect of SPEI anomalies on R h . Consideration of nitrogen constraints reduced anomalies in carbon fluxes in response to extreme dry/wet events. This nitrogen‐induced buffer constrained the growth of plants under wet extremes and allowed for enhanced growth during droughts. Extra gain of soil moisture from the downregulation of canopy transpiration by nitrogen limitation and shifts in the relative importance of water and nitrogen limitation during dry/wet extreme events are possible mechanisms contributing to the buffering of modeled NPP and NEP. Responses of R h to moisture anomalies were much weaker compared to NPP, and N buffering effects were less evident.