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Terrestrial C:N stoichiometry in response to elevated CO2 and N addition: a synthesis of two meta-analyses

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Abstract

Both elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N) deposition may induce changes in C:N ratios in plant tissues and mineral soil. However, the potential mechanisms driving the stoichiometric shifts remain elusive. In this study, we examined the responses of C:N ratios in both plant tissues and mineral soil to elevated CO2 and N deposition using data extracted from 140 peer-reviewed publications. Our results indicated that C:N ratios in both plant tissues and mineral soil exhibited consistent increases under elevated CO2 regimes whereas decreases in C:N ratios were observed in response to experimental N addition. Moreover, soil C:N ratio was less sensitive than plant C:N ratio to both global change scenarios. Our results also showed that the responses of stoichiometric ratios were highly variable among different studies. The changes in C:N ratio did not exhibit strong correlations with C dynamics but were negatively associated with corresponding changes in N content. These results suggest that N dynamics drive stoichiometric shifts in both plant tissues and mineral soil under both elevated CO2 and N deposition scenarios.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. We also appreciate Joshua Kalfas for assisting with English grammar. We thank all scientists whose data and work are included in this data synthesis. This study was financially supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under DEB 0743778, DEB 0840964, DBI 0850290, and EPS 0919466; by the Office of Science (BER), Department of Energy, Grants No.: DE-FG02-006ER64319 and through the Midwestern Regional Center of the National Institute for Climatic Change Research at Michigan Technological University, under Award Number DE-FC02-06ER64158. WXH was supported by the National Natural Science of China (40973054).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Yuanhe Yang, Yiqi Luo & Christina Schädel

  2. Coastal Ecosystems Research Station of Yangtze River Estuary, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, The Institute of Biodiversity Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Meng Lu

  3. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Meng Lu

  4. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, China

    Wenxuan Han

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  1. Yuanhe Yang
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  2. Yiqi Luo
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  4. Christina Schädel
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  5. Wenxuan Han
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Correspondence to Yuanhe Yang.

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Responsible Editor: Klaus Butterbach-Bahl.

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Appendix S1

A list of papers from which data are extracted for this synthesis. (DOC 73 kb)

Appendix S2

Dataset of carbon content, nitrogen content, and carbon: nitrogen ratio in shoot, root and mineral soil under control and treatment conditions, together with reference sources, ecosystem type and experimental treatment. (XLS 171 kb)

Table S1

Terrestrial C:N ratio dynamics in response to elevated CO2 (+ CO2), N addition (+ N), and both elevated CO2 and N addition (+ CO2 + N). Values are means ± SE. The sample sizes (n) refers to the total number of the analyzed data points for each ecosystem component. (DOC 33 kb)

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Yang, Y., Luo, Y., Lu, M. et al. Terrestrial C:N stoichiometry in response to elevated CO2 and N addition: a synthesis of two meta-analyses. Plant Soil 343, 393–400 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0736-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0736-8

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