CO2 fertilization contributed more than half of the observed forest biomass increase in northern extra‐tropical land

He, Yue; Liu, Yongwen; Lei, Lingjie; Terrer, César; Huntingford, Chris ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5941-7770; Peñuelas, Josep; Xu, Hao; Piao, Shilong. 2023 CO2 fertilization contributed more than half of the observed forest biomass increase in northern extra‐tropical land. Global Change Biology, 29 (15). 4313-4326. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16806

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Abstract/Summary

The existence of a large-biomass carbon (C) sink in Northern Hemisphere extra-tropical ecosystems (NHee) is well-established, but the relative contribution of different potential drivers remains highly uncertain. Here we isolated the historical role of carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization by integrating estimates from 24 CO2-enrichment experiments, an ensemble of 10 dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) and two observation-based biomass datasets. Application of the emergent constraint technique revealed that DGVMs underestimated the historical response of plant biomass to increasing [CO2] in forests (β Mod/Forest) but overestimated the response in grasslands (β Mod/Grass) since the 1850s. Combining the constrained β Mod/Forest (0.86 ± 0.28 kg C m−2 [100 ppm]−1) with observed forest biomass changes derived from inventories and satellites, we identified that CO2 fertilization alone accounted for more than half (54 ± 18% and 64 ± 21%, respectively) of the increase in biomass C storage since the 1990s. Our results indicate that CO2 fertilization dominated the forest biomass C sink over the past decades, and provide an essential step toward better understanding the key role of forests in land-based policies for mitigating climate change.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16806
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Hydro-climate Risks (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	1354-1013
Additional Keywords:	carbon cycling, CO2 fertilization, CO2-enrichment experiments, dynamic global vegetation models, emergent constraint
NORA Subject Terms:	Earth Sciences Ecology and Environment
Related URLs:	Dataset Other Dataset Project Website
Date made live:	19 Sep 2023 14:17 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/535697

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