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Nitrogen cycle responses to elevated CO2 depend on ecosystem nutrient status

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) limitation of terrestrial ecosystems is a crucial factor for predicting how these ecosystems respond and feedback to climate change. Nitrogen availability for plants in terrestrial ecosystems depends on the internal soil N cycle and inputs to the ecosystem via biological N2 fixation. We reviewed the effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations (eCO2) on gross soil N transformations to advance our understanding of ecosystem responses to eCO2. Overall, neither gross mineralization nor gross nitrification was altered by eCO2. However, emerging from ecosystem specific analysis, we propose a new conceptual model for eCO2 effects on gross mineralization based on ecosystem nutrient status: gross mineralization is only stimulated in N limited ecosystems, but unaffected in phosphorus limited ecosystems. Moreover, the ratio of ammonium oxidation to immobilization is decreased under eCO2, indicating a tighter N cycle with reduced ecosystem N losses. This new conceptual model on N cycle responses to eCO2 should be tested in the future in independent experiments and it provides a new concept for refining mechanistic models of ecosystem responses to climate change.

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Acknowledgments

Prof. L. Klemedtsson for valuable discussion; financially support by the strategic research area BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate, www.becc.lu.se) and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS).

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  1. Louise C. Andresen

    Present address: Department of Plant Ecology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Gießen, Germany

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 460, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Tobias Rütting & Louise C. Andresen

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Correspondence to Tobias Rütting.

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Rütting, T., Andresen, L.C. Nitrogen cycle responses to elevated CO2 depend on ecosystem nutrient status. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 101, 285–294 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-015-9683-8

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