Heath, James and Ayres, Edward and Possell, Malcolm and Bardgett, Richard D. and Black, Helaina I. J. and Grant, Helen and Ineson, Phil and Kerstiens, Gerhard (2005) Rising Atmospheric CO2 Reduces Sequestration of Root-Derived Soil Carbon. Science, 309 (5741). pp. 1711-1713. ISSN 0036-8075
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Forests have a key role as carbon sinks, which could potentially mitigate the continuing increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and associated climate change. We show that carbon dioxide enrichment, although causing short-term growth stimulation in a range of European tree species, also leads to an increase in soil microbial respiration and a marked decline in sequestration of root-derived carbon in the soil. These findings indicate that, should similar processes operate in forest ecosystems, the size of the annual terrestrial carbon sink may be substantially reduced, resulting in a positive feedback on the rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.