Methane consumption by temperate forest soils is a major sink for this important greenhouse gas, but little is known about how tree species influence CH4 uptake by soils. Here, we show that six common tree species in Siberian boreal and temperate forests significantly affect potential CH4 consumption in laboratory microcosms. […]
Plant productivity and ecosystem productivity are strongly influenced by nutrient availability, which is largely determined by the decomposition rate of plant litter. Belowground litter inputs (dead roots, mycorrhizae, and exudates) are larger than aboveground litterfall in many systems. Chemical quality and diameter primarily control decomposition for coarse roots, but these […]
The effects of CO2 elevation on the dynamics of fine root (FR) mass and ectomycorrhizal (EM) mass and colonization were studied in situ in a Florida scrub oak system over four years of postfire regeneration. Soil cores were taken at five dates and sorted to assess the standing crop of […]
Models project that land ecosystems may be able take up a considerable proportion of the carbon dioxide released by human activities, thereby counteracting the anthropogenic emissions. In their Perspective, Hungate et al. argue that these carbon uptake estimates are too high because the models do not take other nutrients such […]
Rising atmospheric CO2 and temperatures are probably altering ecosystem carbon cycling, causing both positive and negative feedbacks to climate. Below-ground processes play a key role in the global carbon (C) cycle because they regulate storage of large quantities of C, and are potentially very sensitive to direct and indirect effects […]
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (Ca), a product of fossil fuel burning, land-use change, and cement manufacture, is expected to cause a large carbon sink in land ecosystems, partly mitigating human-driven climate change (1). Increasing biological nitrogen fixation with rising Ca has been invoked as a means to provide the N […]
[1] We reviewed responses of nitrification, denitrification, and soil N2O efflux to elevated CO2, N availability, and temperature, based on published experimental results. We used meta-analysis to estimate the magnitude of response of soil N2O emissions, nitrifying enzyme activity (NEA), denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA), and net and gross nitrification across experiments. […]
Rising levels of atmospheric CO2 are thought to increase C sinks in terrestrial ecosystems. The potential of these sinks to mitigate CO2 emissions, however, may be constrained by nutrients. By using metaanalysis, we found that elevated CO2 only causes accumulation of soil C when N is added at rates well […]
In Alaska, an outbreak of spruce beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis) recently infested over one million hectares of spruce (Picea spp.) forest. As a result, land management agencies have applied different treatments to infested forests to minimize fire hazard and economic loss and facilitate forest regeneration. In this study we investigated the […]
[1] Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas and participates in the destruction of stratospheric ozone. Soil bacteria produce N2O through denitrification and nitrification, but these processes differ radically in substrate requirements and responses to the environment. Understanding the controls over N2O efflux from soils, and how N2O emissions may […]