Understanding how elevated atmospheric CO2 alters the formation and decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) is important but challenging. If elevated CO2 induces even small changes in rates of formation or decay of SOC, there could be substantial feedbacks on the atmosphere’s concentration of CO2. However, the long turnover times […]
We determined the response of terrestrial methane (CH4) uptake to 4 years of full-factorial manipulations of precipitation and temperature in four ecosystems along a 50 km warm and dry to cold and wet climatic gradient (desert grassland, pinyon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine forest, and mixed conifer forest). Our goals were to determine whether […]
In order to study controls on metabolic processes in soils, we determined the dynamics of 13CO2 production from two position-specific 13C-labeled pyruvate isotopologues in the presence and absence of glucose, succinate, pine, and legume leaf litter, and under anaerobic conditions. We also compared 13CO2 production in soils along a semiarid […]
Global mean temperature is predicted to increase by 2–7 °C and precipitation to change across the globe by the end of this century. To quantify climate effects on ecosystem processes, a number of climate change experiments have been established around the world in various ecosystems. Despite these efforts, general responses of […]
Elevated atmospheric CO2 generally increases plant productivity and subsequently increases the availability of cellulose in soil to microbial decomposers. As key cellulose degraders, soil fungi are likely to be one of the most impacted and responsive microbial groups to elevated atmospheric CO2. To investigate the impacts of ecosystem type and […]
One difficulty in using bioremediation at a contaminated site is demonstrating that biodegradation is actually occurring in situ. The stable isotope composition of contaminants may help with this, since they can serve as an indicator of biological activity. To use this approach it is necessary to establish how a particular […]
Elevated CO2 is expected to lower plant nutrient concentrations via carbohydrate dilution and increased nutrient use efficiency. Elevated CO2 consistently lowers plant foliar nitrogen, but there is no consensus on CO2 effects across the range of plant nutrients. We used meta-analysis to quantify elevated CO2 effects on leaf, stem, root, […]
Ecosystems regulate climate through biogeochemistry and biophysics, but current policies only recognize biogeochemical influences. A new proposal to include biophysical effects changes the climate value of ecosystems, and sets the stage to expand the suite of climate regulation services considered in global policies and carbon markets.
Six terrestrial ecosystems in the USA were exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2 in single or multifactorial experiments for more than a decade to assess potential impacts. We retrospectively assessed soil bacterial community responses in all six-field experiments and found ecosystem-specific and common patterns of soil bacterial community response to elevated […]
Plant growth often responds rapidly to experimentally simulated climate change1, 2. Feedbacks can modulate the initial responses3, but these feedbacks are difficult to detect when they operate on long timescales4. We transplanted intact plant–soil mesocosms down an elevation gradient to expose them to a warmer climate and used collectors and […]