Effects of three global change drivers on terrestrial C:N:P stoichiometry: a global synthesis

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

  • Kai Yue
  • Dario A Fornara
  • Wanqin Yang
  • Yan Peng
  • Zhijie Li
  • Fuzhong Wu
  • Changhui Peng

Over the last few decades there has been an increasing number of controlled-manipulative experiments to investigate how plants and soils might respond to global change. These experiments typically examined the effects of each of three global change drivers (i.e. nitrogen (N) deposition, warming, and elevated CO2 ) on primary productivity and on the biogeochemistry of carbon (C), N and phosphorus (P) across different terrestrial ecosystems. Here we capitalize on this large amount of information by performing a comprehensive meta-analysis (>2000 case studies worldwide) to address how C:N:P stoichiometry of plants, soils and soil microbial biomass might respond to individual vs. combined effects of the three global change drivers. Our results show that (1) individual effects of N addition and elevated CO2 on C:N:P stoichiometry are stronger than warming, (2) combined effects of pairs of global change drivers (e.g., N addition + elevated CO2 , warming + elevated CO2 ) on C:N:P stoichiometry were generally weaker than the individual effects of each of these drivers, (3) additive interactions (i.e. when combined effects are equal to or no significantly different from the sum of individual effects) were more common than synergistic or antagonistic interactions, (4) C:N:P stoichiometry of soil and soil microbial biomass shows high homeostasis under global change manipulations, and (5) C:N:P responses to global change are strongly affected by ecosystem type, local climate and experimental conditions. Our study is one of the first to compare individual vs. combined effects of the three global change drivers on terrestrial C:N:P ratios using a large set of data. To further improve our understanding of how ecosystems might respond to future global change, long-term ecosystem-scale studies testing multifactor effects on plants and soils are urgently required across different world regions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftGlobal Change Biology
Vol/bind23
Udgave nummer6
Sider (fra-til)2450-2463
Antal sider14
ISSN1354-1013
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2017

ID: 169101785