Effects of Elevated CO2 and Nitrogen Deposition on Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes on the Sanjiang Plain Wetland in Northeast China

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Abstract

Background

Increasing atmospheric CO ₂ and nitrogen (N) deposition across the globe may affect ecosystem CO ₂ exchanges and ecosystem carbon cycles. Additionally, it remains unknown how increased N deposition and N addition will alter the effects of elevated CO ₂ on wetland ecosystem carbon fluxes.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Beginning in 2010, a paired, nested manipulative experimental design was used in a temperate wetland of northeastern China. The primary factor was elevated CO ₂, accomplished using Open Top Chambers, and N supplied as NH ₄NO ₃ was the secondary factor. Gross primary productivity (GPP) was higher than ecosystem respiration (ER), leading to net carbon uptake (measured by net ecosystem CO ₂ exchange, or NEE) in all four treatments over the growing season. However, their magnitude had interannual variations, which coincided with air temperature in the early growing season, with the soil temperature and with the vegetation cover. Elevated CO ₂ significantly enhanced GPP and ER but overall reduced NEE because the stimulation caused by the elevated CO ₂ had a greater impact on ER than on GPP. The addition of N stimulated ecosystem C fluxes in both years and ameliorated the negative impact of elevated CO ₂ on NEE.

Conclusion/Significance

In this ecosystem, future elevated CO ₂ may favor carbon sequestration when coupled with increasing nitrogen deposition.

Related collections

Most cited references 6

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Nicolas Gruber, James N. Galloway (2008)

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Nitrogen limitation constrains sustainability of ecosystem response to CO2.

Peter Reich, David Ellsworth, Tali Lee … (2006)

Enhanced plant biomass accumulation in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration could dampen the future rate of increase in CO2 levels and associated climate warming. However, it is unknown whether CO2-induced stimulation of plant growth and biomass accumulation will be sustained or whether limited nitrogen (N) availability constrains greater plant growth in a CO2-enriched world. Here we show, after a six-year field study of perennial grassland species grown under ambient and elevated levels of CO2 and N, that low availability of N progressively suppresses the positive response of plant biomass to elevated CO2. Initially, the stimulation of total plant biomass by elevated CO2 was no greater at enriched than at ambient N supply. After four to six years, however, elevated CO2 stimulated plant biomass much less under ambient than enriched N supply. This response was consistent with the temporally divergent effects of elevated CO2 on soil and plant N dynamics at differing levels of N supply. Our results indicate that variability in availability of soil N and deposition of atmospheric N are both likely to influence the response of plant biomass accumulation to elevated atmospheric CO2. Given that limitations to productivity resulting from the insufficient availability of N are widespread in both unmanaged and managed vegetation, soil N supply is probably an important constraint on global terrestrial responses to elevated CO2.

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Nitrogen limitation of net primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems is globally distributed.

David LeBauer, Kathleen K. Treseder (2008)

Our meta-analysis of 126 nitrogen addition experiments evaluated nitrogen (N) limitation of net primary production (NPP) in terrestrial ecosystems. We tested the hypothesis that N limitation is widespread among biomes and influenced by geography and climate. We used the response ratio (R approximately equal ANPP(N)/ANPP(ctrl)) of aboveground plant growth in fertilized to control plots and found that most ecosystems are nitrogen limited with an average 29% growth response to nitrogen (i.e., R = 1.29). The response ratio was significant within temperate forests (R = 1.19), tropical forests (R = 1.60), temperate grasslands (R = 1.53), tropical grasslands (R = 1.26), wetlands (R = 1.16), and tundra (R = 1.35), but not deserts. Eight tropical forest studies had been conducted on very young volcanic soils in Hawaii, and this subgroup was strongly N limited (R = 2.13), which resulted in a negative correlation between forest R and latitude. The degree of N limitation in the remainder of the tropical forest studies (R = 1.20) was comparable to that of temperate forests, and when the young Hawaiian subgroup was excluded, forest R did not vary with latitude. Grassland response increased with latitude, but was independent of temperature and precipitation. These results suggest that the global N and C cycles interact strongly and that geography can mediate ecosystem response to N within certain biome types.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Ben Bond-Lamberty: Role: Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE

Journal ID (publisher-id): plos

Journal ID (pmc): plosone

Title: PLoS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203

Publication date Collection: 2013

Publication date (Electronic): 20 June 2013

Volume: 8

Issue: 6

Electronic Location Identifier: e66563

Affiliations

[1 ]Key Laboratory for Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin Province, P. R. China

[2 ]Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology, Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, P.R. China

DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United States of America

Author notes

* E-mail: nihongwei2000@ 123456163.com

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Conceived and designed the experiments: JBW HWN TCZ. Performed the experiments: JBW XLF HXZ JFW. Analyzed the data: JBW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JBW HWN. Wrote the paper: JBW HWN TCZ.

Article

Publisher ID: PONE-D-12-38819

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066563

PMC ID: 3688588

PubMed ID: 23818943

SO-VID: aded013c-32e0-4412-a377-30dbb56dbabd

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 10 December 2012

Date accepted : 8 May 2013

Page count

Pages: 9

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30970452), the Heilongjiang Province Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists (JC03-09), Fundamental Research Funds for the Finance Department of Heilongjiang Province (2012EFA-02), and the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (C201032). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.