Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Data quality and the role of nutrients in forest carbon-use efficiency

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 959–960 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor —

Predictions of future forest carbon storage are uncertain because of restricted knowledge about drivers of forest carbon cycling. Fernández-Martínez et al.1 state that nutrient availability is the key regulator of global forest carbon balance. This conclusion was drawn from carbon balances of 92 forests mainly derived from eddy covariance data. The key variable was ecosystem carbon-use efficiency (CUEe), defined as ratio of net ecosystem carbon uptake (NEP) to gross primary production (GPP). In their study, comparing ecosystems with high, medium and low nutrient availability resulted in a fivefold higher average CUEe for nutrient-rich forests. Our re-analysis shows, however, that the underlying data set contained flawed data, and the study ignored factors such as site history and topographical site characteristics that influence the quality of eddy covariance data. Including these factors as a quality control results in a data set that does not show any significant influence of nutrient availability on CUEe.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Average CUEe for sites in complex terrain compared with sites in flat terrain.
Figure 2: Ecosystem respiration (Re) plotted against GPP for the remaining 82 sites.

References

  1. Fernández-Martínez, M. et al. Nature Clim. Change 4, 471–476 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Luyssaert, S. et al. Glob. Change Biol. 13, 2509–2537 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Grant, R. F. et al. Tellus Ser. B 62, 475–496 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Poeplau, C. & Don, A. Geoderma 192, 189–201 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Belcher, S. E., Harman, I. N. & Finnigan, J. J. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 44, 479–504 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Feigenwinter, C. et al. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 148, 12–24 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kutsch, W. L. et al. Ecol. Applic. 18, 1391–1405 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Vicca, S. et al. Ecol. Lett. 15, 520–526 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the numerous site PIs and their co-workers, as well as their funding institutions. M. Fernández-Martínez supported this study by providing his data set. We thank T. Vesala, J. Finnigan and J. Grace for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. W.K. was supported through grant 281250 (ICOS-ERIC) by the Academy of Finland. P.K. was supported through the following grants by the Academy of Finland: 272041 (Center of Excellence), 271878 (ICOS) and 281255 (ICOS-Finland).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS RI), Interim Headoffice, Erik Palménin aukio 1, PO Box 48, FI-00014

    Werner L. Kutsch

  2. University of Helsinki, Finland

    Werner L. Kutsch

  3. Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Erik Palménin aukio 1, PO Box 48, FI-00014

    Pasi Kolari

  4. University of Helsinki, Finland

    Pasi Kolari

Authors
  1. Werner L. Kutsch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pasi Kolari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Werner L. Kutsch or Pasi Kolari.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary information (PDF 6242 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kutsch, W., Kolari, P. Data quality and the role of nutrients in forest carbon-use efficiency. Nature Clim Change 5, 959–960 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2793

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2793

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing