Key ecological responses to nitrogen are altered by climate change

Here we review the effects of nitrogen and climate (e.g. temperature and precipitation) on four aspects of ecosystem structure and function including hydrologic-coupled nitrogen cycling, carbon cycling, acidification and biodiversity.

Impact/Purpose

Ecosystems are simultaneously exposed to multiple stressors; two dominant drivers threatening ecosystems are anthropogenic nitrogen loading and climate change. Evaluating the cumulative effects of these stressors provides a holistic view of ecosystem vulnerability, which would better inform policy decisions aimed to protect the sustainability of ecosystems. Our current knowledge of the cumulative effects of these stressors is growing, but limited. The goal of this paper is to synthesize the state of scientific knowledge on how ecosystems are affected by the interactions of meteorlogic/climatic factors (e.g., temperature and precipitation) and nitrogen addition. Understanding the interactions of meteorlogic/climatic factors and nitrogen will help to inform how current and projected variability may affect ecosystem response.

Citation

Greaver, T., C. Clark, J. Compton, D. Vallano, A. Talhelm, C. Weaver, L. Band, J. Baron, E. Davidson, C. Tague, E. Felker-Quinn, J. Lynch, J. Herrick, L. Liu, C. Goodale, R. Haeuber, AND K. Novak. Key ecological responses to nitrogen are altered by climate change. Nature Publishing Group, New York, NY, 6:836-843, (2016).

• GREAVER_ET_AL-2016-NATURE_CLIMATE_CHANGE.PDF (PDF)  (NA  pp, 369.1 KB, about PDF)
• doi:10.1038/nclimate3088