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Phosphorus feedbacks constraining tropical ecosystem responses to changes in atmospheric CO 2 and climate
Author(s) -
Yang Xiaojuan,
Thornton Peter E.,
Ricciuto Daniel M.,
Hoffman Forrest M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl069241
Subject(s) - environmental science , primary production , ecosystem , atmospheric sciences , humidity , nutrient , carbon cycle , carbon sink , sink (geography) , cycling , nutrient cycle , climate change , ecology , biology , meteorology , forestry , cartography , geology , physics , geography
Abstract The effects of phosphorus (P) availability on carbon (C) cycling in the Amazon region are investigated using CLM‐CNP. We demonstrate that the coupling of P dynamics reduces the simulated historical terrestrial C sink due to increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentrations ([CO 2 ]) by about 26%. Our exploratory simulations show that the response of tropical forest C cycling to increasing [CO 2 ] depends on how elevated CO 2 affects phosphatase enzyme production. The effects of warming are more complex, depending on the interactions between humidity, C, and nutrient dynamics. While a simulation with low humidity generally shows the reduction of net primary productivity (NPP), a second simulation with higher humidity suggests overall increases in NPP due to the dominant effects of reduced water stress and more nutrient availability. Our simulations point to the need for (1) new observations on how elevated [CO2] affects phosphatase enzyme production and (2) more tropical leaf‐scale measurements under different temperature/humidity conditions with different soil P availability.