title: Partitioning direct and indirect effects reveals the response of water-limited ecosystems to elevated CO2.
abstract: Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are expected to affect carbon assimilation and evapotranspiration (ET), ultimately driving changes in plant growth, hydrology, and the global carbon balance. Direct leaf biochemical effects have been widely investigated, whereas indirect effects, although documented, elude explicit quantification in experiments. Here, we used a mechanistic model to investigate the relative contributions of direct (through carbon assimilation) and indirect (via soil moisture savings due to stomatal closure, and changes in leaf area index) effects of elevated CO2across a variety of ecosystems. We specifically determined which ecosystems and climatic conditions maximize the indirect effects of elevated CO2The simulations suggest that the indirect effects of elevated CO2on net primary productivity are large and variable, ranging from less than 10% to more than 100% of the size of direct effects. For ET, indirect effects were, on average, 65% of the size of direct effects. Indirect effects tended to be considerably larger in water-limited ecosystems. As a consequence, the total CO2effect had a significant, inverse relationship with the wetness index and was directly related to vapor pressure deficit. These results have major implications for our understanding of the CO2response of ecosystems and for global projections of CO2fertilization, because, although direct effects are typically understood and easily reproducible in models, simulations of indirect effects are far more challenging and difficult to constrain. Our findings also provide an explanation for the discrepancies between experiments in the total CO2effect on net primary productivity.
authors: Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland; simone.fatichi@ifu.baug.ethz.ch.
authors: Simone
authors: S
authors: Fatichi
authors: Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, School of Science, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
authors: Sebastian
authors: S
authors: Leuzinger
authors: Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.|Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708.
authors: Athanasios
authors: A
authors: Paschalis
authors: Department of Biology, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085.
authors: J Adam
authors: JA
authors: Langley
authors: Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, School of Science, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
authors: Alicia
authors: A
authors: Donnellan Barraclough
authors: School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 7005 TAS, Australia.
authors: Mark J
authors: MJ
authors: Hovenden
keywords: FACE; carbon dioxide; evapotranspiration; modeling; soil moisture