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A global perspective on belowground carbon dynamics under nitrogen enrichment
Author(s) -
Liu Lingli,
Greaver Tara L.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01482.x
Subject(s) - cycling , carbon sequestration , ecosystem , nitrogen , soil carbon , carbon cycle , soil respiration , nitrogen cycle , litter , leaching (pedology) , biomass (ecology) , biogeochemical cycle , environmental chemistry , ecology , environmental science , agronomy , respiration , plant litter , carbon fibers , chemistry , soil water , carbon dioxide , soil science , biology , botany , history , materials science , archaeology , organic chemistry , composite number , composite material
Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 819–828 Abstract Nitrogen (N) effects on ecosystem carbon (C) budgets are critical to understand as C sequestration is considered as a mechanism to offset anthropogenic CO 2 emissions. Interactions between aboveground C and N cycling are more clearly characterized than belowground processes. Through synthesizing data from multiple terrestrial ecosystems, we quantified the responses of belowground C cycling under N addition. We found that N addition increased litter input from aboveground (+20%) but not from fine root. N addition inhibited microbial activity as indicated by a reduction in microbial respiration (−8%) and microbial biomass carbon (−20%). Although soil respiration was not altered by N addition, dissolved organic carbon concentration was increased by 18%, suggesting C leaching loss may increase. N addition increased the C content of the organic layer (+17%) but not the mineral soil layer. Overall, our meta‐analysis indicates that N addition will increase short term belowground C storage by increasing C content of organic layer. However, it is difficult to predict the response of long term C sequestration since there is no significant change in mineral soil C content.