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.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Global change

A question of litter quality

Nature volume 396, pages 17–18 (1998)Cite this article

A long-standing hypothesis has been laid to rest, one describing how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to rising levels of CO2in the atmosphere. The forum was a meeting in CapriFootnote 1, where plant physiologists, ecologists and soil scientists met to re-examine the idea that changes in the chemistry of dead leaves (litter), grown in a high CO2environment, mean that its decomposition rate will decline. The consensus was that there is insufficient evidence to support this view. So it seems that what might have been a negative feedback on net plant productivity in the future, probably won't be.

*Litter Quality and Decomposition under Elevated Atmospheric CO2, Capri, Italy, 24-27 September 1998.

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

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: The primary effect of increasing atmospheric CO2in terrestrial ecosystems is to stimulate the rate of photosynthesis, but many other adjustments in plant and soil processes can result.

Notes

  1. *Litter Quality and Decomposition under Elevated Atmospheric CO2, Capri, Italy, 24-27 September 1998.

References

  1. Strain, B. R. & Bazzaz, F. A. in CO 2 and Plants: The Responses of Plants to Rising Levels of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (ed. Lemon, E. R.) 177-222 (Westview, Boulder, CO, 1983).

  2. Cotrufo, M. F., Ineson, P. & Scott, A. Glob. Change Biol. 4, 43–54 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  3. O'Neill, E. G. & Norby, R. J. in Carbon Dioxide and Terrestrial Ecosystems (eds Koch, G. W. & Mooney, H. A.) 87-103 (Academic, San Diego, 1996).

  4. Gahrooee, F. Glob. Change Biol. 4, 667–677 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Torbert, H. A., Prior, S. A. & Rogers, H. H. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 59, 1321–1328 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kemp, P. R., Waldecker, D. G., Owensby, C. E., Reynolds, J. F. & Virginia, R. A. Pl. Soil 165, 115–127 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Franck, V. M., Hungate, B. A., Chapin, F. S. & Field, C. B. Biogeochemistry 36, 223–237 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Parton, W. J.et al. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 7, 785–809 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Thornley, J. H. M. (ed.) Grassland Dynamics: An Ecosystem Simulation Model (CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, 1998).

  10. Berg, B.et al. Can. J. Bot. 74, 659–672 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  11. IGBP Terrestrial Carbon Working Group Science 280, 1393–1394 (1998).

  12. Bazzaz, F. A. Plants in Changing Environments : Linking Physiological, Population, and Community Ecology (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37831-6422, Tennessee, USA

    Richard J. Norby

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Seconda Università di Napoli, 81100, Caserta, Italy

    M. Francesca Cotrufo

Authors
  1. Richard J. Norby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Francesca Cotrufo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Norby, R., Cotrufo, M. A question of litter quality. Nature 396, 17–18 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/23812

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/23812

This article is cited by

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