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Raised atmospheric CO |
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| Authors: | Frank Berendse Nico Van Breemen † HÅkan Rydin ‡ Alexandre Buttler § Monique Heijmans Marcel R Hoosbeek † John A Lee ¶ Edward Mitchell Timo Saarinen †† Harri Vasander†† Bo Wallén‡‡ |
| Institution: | Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Bornsesteeg 69, 6708 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands;;Laboratory for Soil Science and Geology, Wageningen University, PO Box 37, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands;;Department of Plant Ecology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Villavägen 14, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden;;Laboratoire de Chrono-écologie, UMR CNRS 6565, UFR Sciences et Techniques, University of Franche-Comté, 25030 Besançon, France;;Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S102 TN Sheffield, UK;;Laboratoire d'écologie végétale et de phytosociologie, Institute de Botanique, Universitéde Neuchâtel, Rue Emile Argand 11, 2007 Neuchâtel, Switzerland;;FIN-00014, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;;Department of Plant Ecology, Lund University, Ecology Building, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden |
| Abstract: | Part of the missing sink in the global CO2 budget has been attributed to the positive effects of CO2 fertilization and N deposition on carbon sequestration in Northern Hemisphere terrestrial ecosystems. The genus Sphagnum is one of the most important groups of plant species sequestrating carbon in temperate and northern bog ecosystems, because of the low decomposability of the dead material it produces. The effects of raised CO2 and increased atmospheric N deposition on growth of Sphagnum and other plants were studied in bogs at four sites across Western Europe. Contrary to expectations, elevated CO2 did not significantly affect Sphagnum biomass growth. Increased N deposition reduced Sphagnum mass growth, because it increased the cover of vascular plants and the tall moss Polytrichum strictum. Such changes in plant species composition may decrease carbon sequestration in Sphagnum‐dominated bog ecosystems. |
| Keywords: | bogs carbon dioxide nitrogen peatlands Sphagnum |