Soil science: Scavenging for scrap metal

Organisms acquire some elements from the environment with ease. Diffusion alone often provides enough carbon dioxide, oxygen and water. But getting other elements requires more effort, spurring unique evolutionary adaptations: instead of taking up nutrients from the soil, some plants in acidic bogs trap insects to obtain nitrogen and phosphorus 1; geophagy — or eating dirt — may sometimes be important for acquiring iron by primates 2; plants and microorganisms secrete compounds that liberate phosphorus from unavailable forms in soil 3; and many bacteria secrete metal-scavenging compounds called siderophores to capture iron and copper 4,5. Evidence has mounted that molybdenum is also specifically targeted 6. On page 243 of this issue, Bellenger and colleagues 7 confirm this, showing that siderophores produced by the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter vinelandiibind with molybdenum and vanadium in the laboratory, promoting uptake of these metals.

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Authors:Duval BD Hungate BA

The North American (NA) terrestrial biosphere has been a long-term carbon sink but impacts of climate extremes such as drought on ecosystem carbon exchange remain largely uncertain. Here, changes in biospheric carbon fluxes with recent climate change and impacts of the major droughts of the past 30 years on continental carbon cycle across NA were studied using a comprehensive mathematical process model, ecosys. In test of these model responses at continental scale, the spatial anomalies in modeled leaf area indices, fully prognostic in the model, from long-term (1980–2010) means during major drought events in 1988 and 2002 agreed well with those in AVHRR NDVI (R2 = 0.84 in 1988, 0.71 in 2002). Net ecosystem productivity (NEP) modeled across NA declined by 92% (0.50 Pg C yr−1) and 90% (0.49 Pg C yr−1) from the long-term mean (+0.54 Pg C yr−1), in 1988 and 2002 respectively. These significant drops in NEP offset 28% of the carbon gains modeled over the last three decades. Although the long-term average modeled terrestrial carbon sink was estimated to offset ∼30% of the fossil fuel emissions of NA, only 0.03% and 3.2% were offset in 1988 and 2002 leaving almost all fossil fuel emissions to the atmosphere. These major drought events controlled much of the continental-scale interannual variability and mainly occurred in parts of the Great Plains, southwest US and northern Mexico. Although warming in northern ecosystems caused increasing carbon sinks to be modeled as a result of greater gross primary productivity with longer growing seasons, elsewhere in the continent frequent drought events of the past 30 years reduced carbon uptake and hence net carbon sinks of the NA.

Groundwater is an integral component of the water cycle, and it also influences the carbon cycle by supplying moisture to ecosystems. However, the extent and determinants of groundwater-vegetation interactions are poorly understood at the global scale. Using several high-resolution data products, we show that the spatial patterns of ecosystem gross primary productivity and groundwater table depth are correlated during at least one season in more than two thirds of the global vegetated area. Positive relationships, i.e., larger productivity under shallower groundwater table, predominate in moisture-limited dry to mesic conditions with herbaceous and shrub vegetation. Negative relationships, i.e., larger productivity under deeper groundwater, predominate in humid climates with forests, possibly indicating a drawdown of groundwater table due to substantial ecosystem water use. Interestingly, these opposite groundwater-vegetation interactions are primarily associated with differences in vegetation than with climate and surface characteristics. These findings put forth the first evidence, and a need for better representation, of extensive and non-negligible groundwater-vegetation interactions at the global scale.

Warming temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere have enhanced terrestrial productivity. Despite the warming trend, North America has experienced more frequent and more intense cold weather events during winters and springs. These events have been linked to anomalous Arctic warming since 1990, and may affect terrestrial processes. Here we analyse multiple observation data sets and numerical model simulations to evaluate links between Arctic temperatures and primary productivity in North America. We find that positive springtime temperature anomalies in the Arctic have led to negative anomalies in gross primary productivity over most of North America during the last three decades, which amount to a net productivity decline of 0.31 PgC yr−1across the continent. This decline is mainly explained by two factors: severe cold conditions in northern North America and lower precipitation in the South Central United States. In addition, United States crop-yield data reveal that during years experiencing anomalous warming in the Arctic, yields declined by approximately 1 to 4% on average, with individual states experiencing declines of up to 20%. We conclude that the strengthening of Arctic warming anomalies in the past decades has remotely reduced productivity over North America.