Long‐term nitrogen deposition linked to reduced water use efficiency in forests with low phosphorus availability

Huang, Zhiqun; Liu, Bao; Davis, M. R.; Sardans, Jordi; Peñuelas, Josep; Billings, Sharon A.

doi:10.1111/nph.13785

Cited by 96 publications

(76 citation statements)

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“…A study in subtropical China reported that plant N:P ratios were greater in evergreen broadleaved forest when compared to needle‐leaf and mixed forests (Huang et al., ). The significant increases observed in C:P and N:P ratios in subtropical broadleaf forest soils, together with the results from recent studies reporting N deposition‐associated increases in leaf N:P ratios in three subtropical forests during the past six decades (Han et al., ; Huang et al., ; Li et al., ), suggest that evergreen broadleaved forest (the most typical natural vegetation type) in subtropical China has experienced aggravated P limitation as compared to other vegetation types.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Subtropical and tropical soils are usually strongly weathered and have low total P content and availability (Vitousek et al, 2010;Walker & Syers, 1976;Zhang et al, 2005). Previous studies from China suggested that soil P likely limits primary production in subtropical regions (Han, Fang, Guo, & Zhang, 2005;Huang et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2005). A recent meta-analysis of P additions combined with N enrichment concluded that P limitation is likely to become more severe under continued or increasing N deposition (Li, Niu, & Yu, 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Temporal changes in soil C‐N‐P stoichiometry over the past 60 years across subtropical China

Wang

Huang

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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117

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Controlled experiments have shown that global changes decouple the biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P), resulting in shifting stoichiometry that lies at the core of ecosystem functioning. However, the response of soil stoichiometry to global changes in natural ecosystems with different soil depths, vegetation types, and climate gradients remains poorly understood. Based on 2,736 observations along soil profiles of 0-150 cm depth from 1955 to 2016, we evaluated the temporal changes in soil C-N-P stoichiometry across subtropical China, where soils are P-impoverished, with diverse vegetation, soil, and parent material types and a wide range of climate gradients. We found a significant overall increase in soil total C concentration and a decrease in soil total P concentration, resulting in increasing soil C:P and N:P ratios during the past 60 years across all soil depths. Although average soil N concentration did not change, soil C:N increased in topsoil while decreasing in deeper soil. The temporal trends in soil C-N-P stoichiometry differed among vegetation, soil, parent material types, and spatial climate variations, with significantly increased C:P and N:P ratios for evergreen broadleaf forest and highly weathered Ultisols, and more pronounced temporal changes in soil C:N, N:P, and C:P ratios at low elevations. Our sensitivity analysis suggests that the temporal changes in soil stoichiometry resulted from elevated N deposition, rising atmospheric CO concentration and regional warming. Our findings revealed that the responses of soil C-N-P and stoichiometry to long-term global changes have occurred across the whole soil depth in subtropical China and the magnitudes of the changes in soil stoichiometry are dependent on vegetation types, soil types, and spatial climate variations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal changes in soil C‐N‐P stoichiometry over the past 60 years across subtropical China

Wang

Huang

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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117

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“…As a critical link between ecosystem production and resource supply in terrestrial ecosystems, resource use efficiencies (RUEs), the ratio of carbon assimilation to the captured resource supply, have been widely used to understand ecosystem response to climate change and extremes (Huang et al, 2016;Limousin et al, 2015). RUEs are important controlling factors in many ecosystem production models (Garbulsky et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Climate change projections are forecasting increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, warmer temperatures, more variable precipitation, and frequent extreme climate events in the future (IPCC, 2014). These changes are expected to profoundly impact the ecosystem's supply of photosynthetic resources (i.e., light, carbon [CO 2 ], and water; Chen et al, 2015;Limousin, Yepez, McDowell, & Pockman, 2015) and also the functional plant structure (Huang et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Divergent long‐term trends and interannual variation in ecosystem resource use efficiencies of a southern boreal old black spruce forest 1999–2017

Liu

Black

Jassal

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Long‐term trends in ecosystem resource use efficiencies (RUEs) and their controlling factors are key pieces of information for understanding how an ecosystem responds to climate change. We used continuous eddy covariance and microclimate data over the period 1999–2017 from a 120‐year‐old black spruce stand in central Saskatchewan, Canada, to assess interannual variability, long‐term trends, and key controlling factors of gross ecosystem production (GEP) and the RUEs of carbon (CUE = net primary production [NPP]/GEP), light (LUE = GEP/absorbed photosynthetic radiation [APAR]), and water (WUE = GEP/evapotranspiration [E]). At this site, annual GEP has shown an increasing trend over the 19 years (p < 0.01), which may be attributed to rising atmospheric CO2 concentration. Interannual variability in GEP, aside from its increasing trend, was most strongly related to spring temperatures. Associated with the significant increase in annual GEP were relatively small changes in NPP, APAR, and E, so that annual CUE showed a decreasing trend and annual LUE and WUE showed increasing trends over the 19 years. The long‐term trends in the RUEs were related to the increasing CO2 concentration. Further analysis of detrended RUEs showed that their interannual variation was impacted most strongly by air temperature. Two‐factor linear models combining CO2 concentration and air temperature performed well (R2~0.60) in simulating annual RUEs. LUE and WUE were positively correlated both annually and seasonally, while LUE and CUE were mostly negatively correlated. Our results showed divergent long‐term trends among CUE, LUE, and WUE and highlighted the need to account for the combined effects of climatic controls and the ‘CO2 fertilization effect’ on long‐term variations in RUEs. Since most RUE‐based models rely primarily on one resource limitation, the observed patterns of relative change among the three RUEs may have important implications for RUE‐based modeling of C fluxes.

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Linking plant functional trait plasticity and the large increase in forest water use efficiency

et al. 2017

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Elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentrations are expected to enhance photosynthesis and reduce stomatal conductance, thus increasing plant water use efficiency. A recent study based on eddy covariance flux observations from Northern Hemisphere forests showed a large increase in inherent water use efficiency (IWUE). Here we used an updated version of the same data set and robust uncertainty quantification to revisit these contemporary IWUE trends. We tested the hypothesis that the observed IWUE increase could be attributed to interannual trends in plant functional traits, potentially triggered by environmental change. We found that IWUE increased by~1.3% yr À1 , which is less than previously reported but still larger than theoretical expectations. Numerical simulations with the Tethys-Chloris ecosystem model using temporally static plant functional traits cannot explain this increase. Simulations with plant functional trait plasticity, i.e., temporal changes in model parameters such as specific leaf area and maximum Rubisco capacity, match the observed trends in IWUE. Our results show that trends in plant functional traits, equal to 1.0% yr À1 , can explain the observed IWUE trends. Thus, at decadal or longer time scales, trait plasticity could potentially influence forest water, carbon, and energy fluxes with profound implications for both the monitoring of temporal changes in plant functional traits and their representation in Earth system models.

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Long‐term nitrogen deposition linked to reduced water use efficiency in forests with low phosphorus availability

Cited by 96 publications

References 96 publications

Temporal changes in soil C‐N‐P stoichiometry over the past 60 years across subtropical China

Temporal changes in soil C‐N‐P stoichiometry over the past 60 years across subtropical China

Divergent long‐term trends and interannual variation in ecosystem resource use efficiencies of a southern boreal old black spruce forest 1999–2017

Linking plant functional trait plasticity and the large increase in forest water use efficiency

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