O'Sullivan, M orcid.org/0000-0002-6278-3392, Spracklen, DV, Batterman, SA et al. (3 more authors) (2019) Have Synergies Between Nitrogen Deposition and Atmospheric CO₂ Driven the Recent Enhancement of the Terrestrial Carbon Sink? Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 33 (2). pp. 163-180. ISSN 0886-6236
Abstract
The terrestrial carbon sink has increased since the turn of this century at a time of increased fossil fuel burning, yet the mechanisms enhancing this sink are not fully understood. Here we assess the hypothesis that regional increases in nitrogen deposition since the early 2000s has alleviated nitrogen limitation and worked in tandem with enhanced CO₂ fertilization to increase ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration, providing a causal link between the parallel increases in emissions and the global land carbon sink. We use the Community Land Model (CLM4.5‐BGC) to estimate the influence of changes in atmospheric CO₂, nitrogen deposition, climate, and their interactions to changes in net primary production and net biome production. We focus on two periods, 1901–2016 and 1990–2016, to estimate changes in land carbon fluxes relative to historical and contemporary baselines, respectively. We find that over the historical period, nitrogen deposition (14%) and carbon‐nitrogen synergy (14%) were significant contributors to the current terrestrial carbon sink, suggesting that long‐term increases in nitrogen deposition led to a substantial increase in CO₂ fertilization. However, relative to the contemporary baseline, changes in nitrogen deposition and carbon‐nitrogen synergy had no substantial contribution to the 21st century increase in global carbon uptake. Nonetheless, we find that increased nitrogen deposition in East Asia since the early 1990s contributed 50% to the overall increase in net biome production over this region, highlighting the importance of carbon‐nitrogen interactions. Therefore, potential large‐scale changes in nitrogen deposition could have a significant impact on terrestrial carbon cycling and future climate.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | carbon‐nitrogen interactions; terrestrial carbon sink; nitrogen deposition; CO₂ fertilization; land surface models |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Feb 2019 16:03 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2018GB005922 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:142416 |
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