Review of elevated atmospheric CO2 effects on agro-ecosystems: residue decomposition processes and soil C storage

A series of studies using major crops (cotton [Gossypium hirsutum L.], wheat [Triticum aestivum L.], grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.] and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]) were reviewed to examine the impact of elevated atmospheric CO₂ on crop residue decomposition within agro-ecosystems. Experiments evaluated utilized plant and soil material collected from CO₂ study sites using Free Air CO₂ Enrichment (FACE) and open top chambers (OTC). A incubation study of FACE residue revealed that CO₂-induced changes in cotton residue composition could alter decomposition processes, with a decrease in N mineralization observed with FACE, which was dependent on plant organ and soil series. Incubation studies utilizing plant material grown in OTC considered CO₂-induced changes in relation to quantity and quality of crop residue for two species, soybean and grain sorghum. As with cotton, N mineralization was reduced with elevated CO₂ in both species, however, difference in both quantity and quality of residue impacted patterns of C mineralization. Over the short-term (14 d), little difference was observed for CO₂ treatments in soybean, but C mineralization was reduced with elevated CO₂ in grain sorghum. For longer incubation periods (60 d), a significant reduction in CO₂-C mineralized per g of residue added was observed with the elevated atmospheric CO₂ treatment in both crop species. Results from incubation studies agreed with those from the OTC field observations for both measurements of short-term CO₂ efflux following spring tillage and the cumulative effect of elevated CO₂ (> 2 years) in this study. Observations from field and laboratory studies indicate that with elevated atmospheric CO₂, the rate of plant residue decomposition may be limited by N and the release of N from decomposing plant material may be slowed. This indicates that understanding N cycling as affected by elevated CO₂ is fundamental to understanding the potential for soil C storage on a global scale. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.