Field-experiment constraints on the enhancement of the terrestrial carbon sink by CO2 fertilization

Yongwen Liu, Shilong Piao, Thomas Gasser, Philippe Ciais, Hui Yang, Han Wang, Trevor F. Keenan, Mengtian Huang, Shiqiang Wan, Jian Song, Kai Wang, Ivan A. Janssens, Josep Peñuelas, Chris Huntingford, Xuhui Wang, Muhammad Altaf Arain, Yuanyuan Fang, Joshua B. Fisher, Maoyi Huang, Deborah N. HuntzingerAkihiko Ito, Atul K. Jain, Jiafu Mao, Anna M. Michalak, Changhui Peng, Benjamin Poulter, Christopher Schwalm, Xiaoying Shi, Hanqin Tian, Yaxing Wei, Ning Zeng, Qiuan Zhu, Tao Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

71 Scopus citations

Abstract

Clarifying how increased atmospheric CO2 concentration (eCO2) contributes to accelerated land carbon sequestration remains important since this process is the largest negative feedback in the coupled carbon–climate system. Here, we constrain the sensitivity of the terrestrial carbon sink to eCO2 over the temperate Northern Hemisphere for the past five decades, using 12 terrestrial ecosystem models and data from seven CO2 enrichment experiments. This constraint uses the heuristic finding that the northern temperate carbon sink sensitivity to eCO2 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 eCO2. 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 CO2 of 100 ppm. This value suggests that CO2 fertilization alone explains most of the observed increase in global land carbon sink since the 1960s. More CO2 enrichment experiments, particularly in boreal, arctic and tropical ecosystems, are required to explain further the responsible processes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)809-814
Number of pages6
JournalNature Geoscience
Volume12
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

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