title: Soil warming, carbon-nitrogen interactions, and forest carbon budgets.
abstract: Soil warming has the potential to alter both soil and plant processes that affect carbon storage in forest ecosystems. We have quantified these effects in a large, long-term (7-y) soil-warming study in a deciduous forest in New England. Soil warming has resulted in carbon losses from the soil and stimulated carbon gains in the woody tissue of trees. The warming-enhanced decay of soil organic matter also released enough additional inorganic nitrogen into the soil solution to support the observed increases in plant carbon storage. Although soil warming has resulted in a cumulative net loss of carbon from a New England forest relative to a control area over the 7-y study, the annual net losses generally decreased over time as plant carbon storage increased. In the seventh year, warming-induced soil carbon losses were almost totally compensated for by plant carbon gains in response to warming. We attribute the plant gains primarily to warming-induced increases in nitrogen availability. This study underscores the importance of incorporating carbon-nitrogen interactions in atmosphere-ocean-land earth system models to accurately simulate land feedbacks to the climate system.
authors: The Ecosystem Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. jmelillo@mbl.edu
authors: Jerry M
authors: JM
authors: Melillo
authors: Sarah
authors: S
authors: Butler
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Johnson
authors: Jacqueline
authors: J
authors: Mohan
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Steudler
authors: Heidi
authors: H
authors: Lux
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Burrows
authors: Francis
authors: F
authors: Bowles
authors: Rose
authors: R
authors: Smith
authors: Lindsay
authors: L
authors: Scott
authors: Chelsea
authors: C
authors: Vario
authors: Troy
authors: T
authors: Hill
authors: Andrew
authors: A
authors: Burton
authors: Yu-Mei
authors: YM
authors: Zhou
authors: Jim
authors: J
authors: Tang
references: Science. 2000 Mar 17;287(5460):2004-6
references: 10720324
references: J Integr Plant Biol. 2008 Nov;50(11):1467-83
references: 19017133
references: Nature. 2001 May 24;411(6836):469-72
references: 11373677
references: Science. 2010 Aug 20;329(5994):940-3
references: 20724633
references: Science. 2001 Nov 23;294(5547):1688-91
references: 11721047
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Nov 20;104(47):18866-70
references: 17962418
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Nov 9;107(45):19368-73
references: 20974944
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Apr 25;103(17):6571-4
references: 16614072
references: Science. 2003 Nov 28;302(5650):1512-3
references: 14645831
references: Nature. 2001 Nov 8;414(6860):169-72
references: 11700548
references: Science. 2001 Jun 22;292(5525):2316-20
references: 11423659
references: Science. 2002 Dec 13;298(5601):2173-6
references: 12481133
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Feb 5;99(3):1389-94
references: 11830663
references: Nature. 2001 Oct 11;413(6856):622-5
references: 11675783
references: Nature. 2000 Nov 9;408(6809):184-7
references: 11089968
references: Science. 2000 Nov 10;290(5494):1148-51
references: 11073451