Separating effects of changes in atmospheric composition, climate and land-use on carbon sequestration of US Mid-Atlantic temperate forests

Terrestrial carbon dynamics have been vastly modified because of changes in atmospheric composition, climate, and land-use. However, few studies provide a complete analysis of the factors and interactions that affect carbon dynamics over a large landscape. This study examines how changes in atmospheric composition (CO2, O-3 and N deposition), climate and land-use affected carbon dynamics and sequestration in Mid-Atlantic temperate forests during the 20th century. We modified and applied the PnET-CN model, a well established process-based ecosystem model with a strong foundation of ecosystem knowledge from experimental studies. We validated the model results using the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data. Our results suggest that chronic changes in atmospheric chemistry over the past century markedly affected carbon dynamics and sequestration in Mid-Atlantic temperate forests, while climate change only had a minor impact although inter-annual climatic variability had a far more substantial effect. The NPP response to a century of chronic change in atmospheric composition at the regional scale was an increase of 29%, of which, 14% was from elevated CO2, 17% from N deposition, 6% from the interaction between CO2 and N deposition, and minus 8% from tropospheric ozone. Climate change increased NPP by only 4%. Disturbed forests had 6% lower NPP than undisturbed forests after seven decades. Regrowing forests after harvesting and natural disturbances had much greater capacity for sequestering carbon than undisturbed old-growth forests even though the newer forests had slightly lower net primary production (NPP). The modeling results indicated that N deposition was a stronger force than elevated CO2 for increasing NPP and fast turnover tissues, while elevated CO2 favored more sustainable carbon storage and sequestration. The model results are consistent with various experiments and observations and demonstrate a powerful approach to integrate and expand our knowledge of complex interactive effects of multiple environmental changes on forest carbon dynamics. Published by Elsevier B.V.