Grassland Responses to Global Environmental Changes Suppressed by Elevated CO sub(2)

Tests were conducted to investigate the impacts of various simulated global changes on net primary productivity (NPP) during the third year of ecosystem-scale manipulations in a California annual grassland. The simulated changes considered in the project included warming, elevated precipitation, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2002-12, Vol.298 (5600), p.1987-1987
Main Authors: Shaw, M R, Zavaleta, Erika S, Chiariello, Nona R, Cleland, Elsa E, Mooney, Harold A, Field, Christopher B
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Tests were conducted to investigate the impacts of various simulated global changes on net primary productivity (NPP) during the third year of ecosystem-scale manipulations in a California annual grassland. The simulated changes considered in the project included warming, elevated precipitation, and increased nitrogen deposition. These changes boosted NPP for the targeted grassland region. Although elevated carbon dioxide also acted to boost NPP, this phenomenon occurred only as a single-factor treatment. Results considered across all multifactor manipulations indicated that increased carbon dioxide suppressed root allocation, thereby reducing the positive effects of increased temperatures, precipitation, and nitrogen deposition on NPP. The results from this effort underscored the need to adopt a multifactor experimental approach to understanding ecosystem responses to on-going global change trends.
ISSN:0036-8075