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Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide: possible effects on arctic tundra

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Summary

Cores of wet coastal tundra collected in frozen condition in winter were used as microcosms in a phytotron experiment that assessed the effects of doubling the present atmospheric CO2 concentration, increasing temperature, and depressed water table on net ecosystem CO2 exchange. Doubling atmospheric CO2 had less significance in regard to net carbon capture or loss in this ecosystem as compared to the significant effects of increased temperature and lowered water table level. Both of the latter are to be expected as atmospheric CO2 increases in the Arctic.

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Billings, W.D., Luken, J.O., Mortensen, D.A. et al. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide: possible effects on arctic tundra. Oecologia 58, 286–289 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00385225

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00385225

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