Field-experiment constraints on the enhancement of the terrestrial carbon sink by CO 2 fertilization

Clarifying how increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration (eCO 2 ) adds to accelerated land carbon sequestration remains important since this process is the largest negative feedback in the coupled carbon–climate system. In this work, we constrain the sensitivity of the terrestrial carbon sink to eCO...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Geoscience
Main Authors: Liu, Yongwen, Piao, Shilong, Gasser, Thomas, Ciais, Philippe, Yang, Hui, Wang, Han, Keenan, Trevor F., Huang, Mengtian, Wan, Shiqiang, Song, Jian, Wang, Kai, Janssens, Ivan A., Peñuelas, Josep, Huntingford, Chris, Wang, Xuhui, Altaf Arain, Muhammad, Fang, Yuanyuan, Fisher, Joshua B., Huang, Maoyi, Huntzinger, Deborah N., Ito, Akihiko, Jain, Atul K., Mao, Jiafu, Michalak, Anna M., Peng, Changhui, Poulter, Benjamin, Schwalm, Christopher, Shi, Xiaoying, Tian, Hanqin, Wei, Yaxing, Zeng, Ning, Zhu, Qiuan, Wang, Tao
Language:unknown
Published: 2022
Subjects:
58 GEOSCIENCES
Arctic
Online Access:http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1580931
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1580931
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0436-1
Description
Summary:Clarifying how increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration (eCO 2 ) adds to accelerated land carbon sequestration remains important since this process is the largest negative feedback in the coupled carbon–climate system. In this work, we constrain the sensitivity of the terrestrial carbon sink to eCO 2 over the temperate Northern Hemisphere for the past five decades, using 12 terrestrial ecosystem models and data from seven CO 2 enrichment experiments. This constraint uses the heuristic finding that the northern temperate carbon sink sensitivity to eCO 2 is linearly related to the site-scale sensitivity across the models. The emerging data-constrained eCO2 sensitivity is 0.64 ± 0.28 PgC yr –1 per hundred ppm of eCO 2 . Extrapolating worldwide, this northern temperate sensitivity projects the global terrestrial carbon sink to increase by 3.5 ±1.9 PgC yr –1 for an increase in CO 2 of 100 ppm. This value indicates that CO 2 fertilization alone explains most of the observed increase in global land carbon sink since the 1960s. More CO 2 enrichment experiments, particularly in boreal, arctic and tropical ecosystems, are required to explain further the responsible processes.

Similar Items