@article{4d87d54a3f814f3e845df120911c96db,
title = "Nitrogen and phosphorus constrain the CO2 fertilization of global plant biomass",
abstract = "Elevated CO2 (eCO(2)) experiments provide critical information to quantify the effects of rising CO2 on vegetation 1-6 . Many eCO(2) experiments suggest that nutrient limitations modulate the local magnitude of the eCO(2) effect on plant biomass(1,3,5), but the global extent of these limitations has not been empirically quantified, complicating projections of the capacity of plants to take up CO27,9. Here, we present a data-driven global quantification of the eCO(2) effect on biomass based on 138 eCO(2) experiments. The strength of CO2 fertilization is primarily driven by nitrogen (N) in similar to 65% of global vegetation and by phosphorus (P) in similar to 25% of global vegetation, with N- or P-limitation modulated by mycorrhizal association. Our approach suggests that CO2 levels expected by 2100 can potentially enhance plant biomass by 12 +/- 3% above current values, equivalent to 59 +/- 13 PgC. The globalscale response to eCO(2) we derive from experiments is similar to past changes in greenness(9) and bio-mass(10) with rising CO2, suggesting that CO2 will continue to stimulate plant biomass in the future despite the constraining effect of soil nutrients. Our research reconciles conflicting evidence on CO2 fertilization across scales and provides an empirical estimate of the biomass sensitivity to eCO(2) that may help to constrain climate projections.",
keywords = "ELEVATED CO2, FOREST PRODUCTIVITY, ATMOSPHERIC CO2, MOJAVE DESERT, CARBON, RESPONSES, METAANALYSIS, CLIMATE, GROWTH, ENHANCEMENT",
author = "Cesar Terrer and Jackson, {Robert B.} and Prentice, {I. Colin} and Keenan, {Trevor F.} and Christina Kaiser and Sara Vicca and Fisher, {Joshua B.} and Reich, {Peter B.} and Stocker, {Benjamin D.} and Hungate, {Bruce A.} and Josep Penuelas and Ian McCallum and Soudzilovskaia, {Nadejda A.} and Cernusak, {Lucas A.} and Talhelm, {Alan F.} and {Van Sundert}, Kevin and Shilong Piao and Newton, {Paul C. D.} and Hovenden, {Mark J.} and Blumenthal, {Dana M.} and Liu, {Yi Y.} and Christoph Mueller and Klaus Winter and Field, {Christopher B.} and Wolfgang Viechtbauer and {Van Lissa}, {Caspar J.} and Hoosbeek, {Marcel R.} and Makoto Watanabe and Takayoshi Koike and Leshyk, {Victor O.} and Polley, {H. Wayne} and Oskar Franklin",
note = "Funding Information: We thank C. K{\"o}rner, R. Norby, M. Schneider, Y. Carrillo, E. Pendall, B. Kimball, M. Watanabe, T. Koike, G. Smith, S.J. Tumber-Davila, T. Hasegawa, B. Sigurdsson, S. Hasegawa, A.L. Abdalla-Filho and L. Fenstermaker for sharing data and advice. This research is a contribution to the AXA Chair Programme in Biosphere and Climate Impacts and the Imperial College initiative Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment. Part of this research was developed in the Young Scientists Summer Program at the International Institute for Systems Analysis, Laxenburg (Austria) with financial support from the Natural Environment Research Council (UK). C.T. also acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the Mar{\'i}a de Maeztu programme for Units of Excellence (grant no. MDM-2015-0552). I.C.P. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. 787203 REALM). S.V. and K.v.S. acknowledge support from the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders (Belgium). T.F.K. acknowledges support by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 as part of the RuBiSCo SFA. J.P. acknowledges support from the European Research Council through Synergy grant no. ERC-2013-SyG-610028 {\textquoteleft}IMBALANCE-P{\textquoteright}. T.F.K. and J.B.F. were supported in part by NASA IDS Award no. NNH17AE86I. J.B.F. was also supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research. J.B.F. contributed to this research from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. California Institute of Technology. N.A.S. was supported by Vidi grant no. 016.161.318 by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. This paper is a contribution to the Global Carbon Project. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",
year = "2019",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1038/s41558-019-0545-2",
language = "English",
volume = "9",
pages = "684--689",
journal = "Nature Climate Change",
issn = "1758-678X",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "9",
}