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Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition

Biological nitrogen fixation can fuel CO(2) sequestration by forests but can also stimulate soil emissions of nitrous oxide (N(2)O), a potent greenhouse gas. Here we use a theoretical model to suggest that symbiotic nitrogen-fixing trees could either mitigate (CO(2) sequestration outweighs soil N(2)...

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Autores principales: Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian, Menge, Duncan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6445091/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30940812
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09424-2
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author Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian
Menge, Duncan
author_facet Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian
Menge, Duncan
author_sort Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian
collection PubMed
description Biological nitrogen fixation can fuel CO(2) sequestration by forests but can also stimulate soil emissions of nitrous oxide (N(2)O), a potent greenhouse gas. Here we use a theoretical model to suggest that symbiotic nitrogen-fixing trees could either mitigate (CO(2) sequestration outweighs soil N(2)O emissions) or exacerbate (vice versa) climate change relative to non-fixing trees, depending on their nitrogen fixation strategy (the degree to which they regulate nitrogen fixation to balance nitrogen supply and demand) and on nitrogen deposition. The model posits that nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change globally relative to non-fixing trees by the radiative equivalent of 0.77 Pg C yr(−1) under nitrogen deposition rates projected for 2030. This value is highly uncertain, but its magnitude suggests that this subject requires further study and that improving the representation of biological nitrogen fixation in climate models could substantially decrease estimates of the extent to which forests will mitigate climate change.
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spelling pubmed-64450912019-04-03 Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian Menge, Duncan Nat Commun Article Biological nitrogen fixation can fuel CO(2) sequestration by forests but can also stimulate soil emissions of nitrous oxide (N(2)O), a potent greenhouse gas. Here we use a theoretical model to suggest that symbiotic nitrogen-fixing trees could either mitigate (CO(2) sequestration outweighs soil N(2)O emissions) or exacerbate (vice versa) climate change relative to non-fixing trees, depending on their nitrogen fixation strategy (the degree to which they regulate nitrogen fixation to balance nitrogen supply and demand) and on nitrogen deposition. The model posits that nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change globally relative to non-fixing trees by the radiative equivalent of 0.77 Pg C yr(−1) under nitrogen deposition rates projected for 2030. This value is highly uncertain, but its magnitude suggests that this subject requires further study and that improving the representation of biological nitrogen fixation in climate models could substantially decrease estimates of the extent to which forests will mitigate climate change. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6445091/ /pubmed/30940812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09424-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian
Menge, Duncan
Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
title Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
title_full Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
title_fullStr Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
title_full_unstemmed Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
title_short Nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
title_sort nitrogen-fixing trees could exacerbate climate change under elevated nitrogen deposition
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6445091/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30940812
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09424-2
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