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Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition predicts local grassland primary production worldwide
Author(s) -
Stevens Carly J.,
Lind Eric M.,
Hautier Yann,
Harpole W. Stanley,
Borer Elizabeth T.,
Hobbie Sarah,
Seabloom Eric W.,
Ladwig Laura,
Bakker Jonathan D.,
Chu Chengjin,
Collins Scott,
Davies Kendi F.,
Firn Jennifer,
Hillebrand Helmut,
Pierre Kimberly J. La,
MacDougall Andrew,
Melbourne Brett,
McCulley Rebecca L.,
Morgan John,
Orrock John L.,
Prober Suzanne M.,
Risch Anita C.,
Schuetz Martin,
Wragg Peter D.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1890/14-1902.1
Subject(s) - primary production , environmental science , edaphic , deposition (geology) , grassland , ecosystem , productivity , ecology , herbaceous plant , climate change , carbon cycle , atmospheric sciences , soil water , soil science , biology , geology , paleontology , macroeconomics , sediment , economics
Humans dominate many important Earth system processes including the nitrogen (N) cycle. Atmospheric N deposition affects fundamental processes such as carbon cycling, climate regulation, and biodiversity, and could result in changes to fundamental Earth system processes such as primary production. Both modelling and experimentation have suggested a role for anthropogenically altered N deposition in increasing productivity, nevertheless, current understanding of the relative strength of N deposition with respect to other controls on production such as edaphic conditions and climate is limited. Here we use an international multiscale data set to show that atmospheric N deposition is positively correlated to aboveground net primary production (ANPP) observed at the 1‐m 2 level across a wide range of herbaceous ecosystems. N deposition was a better predictor than climatic drivers and local soil conditions, explaining 16% of observed variation in ANPP globally with an increase of 1 kg N·ha −1 ·yr −1 increasing ANPP by 3%. Soil pH explained 8% of observed variation in ANPP while climatic drivers showed no significant relationship. Our results illustrate that the incorporation of global N deposition patterns in Earth system models are likely to substantially improve estimates of primary production in herbaceous systems. In herbaceous systems across the world, humans appear to be partially driving local ANPP through impacts on the N cycle.