Journal
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
Volume 140, Issue 1-2, Pages 234-244Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2010.12.010
Keywords
Carbon sequestration; N addition; Aboveground C pool; Belowground C pool; Litter C pool; DOC; Microbial biomass C
Funding
- Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai [09DZ1900106]
- US National Science Foundation (NSF) [DEB 0743778, DBI 0850290, DEB 0840964]
- Office of Science (BER), Department of Energy [DE-FG02-006ER64319]
- Midwestern Regional Center of the National Institute for Climatic Change Research at Michigan Technological University [DE-FC02-06ER64158]
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It is a well-established concept that nitrogen (N) limits plant growth and ecosystem production. However, whether N limits land carbon (C) sequestration - particularly in soil, the largest pool in the land - remains highly controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to synthesize 257 studies published in the literature with 512 paired comparisons to quantify the changes of ecosystem C processes in response to N addition. Our results show that N addition significantly increased aboveground, belowground, and litter C pools by 35.7, 23.0, and 20.9%, respectively, across all the studies. Despite the substantial increases in C inputs from vegetation to soil system, N addition resulted in no significant change in C storage of both organic horizon and mineral soil in forests and grasslands, but a significant 3.5% increase in agricultural ecosystems, largely due to less contribution from aboveground production and increases in DOC and soil respiration. Thus, N stimulation of C storage primarily occurred in plant pools but little in soil pools. Moreover, N-induced change in soil C storage was positively related to changes in belowground production but not to those in aboveground growth. Our global synthesis also suggests that earth system models need to treat soil C inputs from aboveground and belowground sources differentially for soil C sequestration in response to N deposition and fertilization. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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