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 AND VIEWS

Mature forest shows little increase in carbon uptake in a CO2-enriched atmosphere

Will mature forests absorb enough carbon from the atmosphere to mitigate climate change as levels of carbon dioxide increase? An experiment in a eucalyptus forest provides fresh evidence.
  1. Yiqi Luo

    1. Yiqi Luo is at the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Shuli Niu

    1. Shuli Niu is at the Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

When atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increase, land ecosystems take up more carbon from the atmosphere as a result of increased photosynthesis, a process known as CO2 fertilization. It has long been suggested that CO2 fertilization will slow the rate of increase of CO2 levels in the atmosphere1, potentially mitigating climate change. To quantify the effect, ecologists have conducted experiments in which the atmosphere around a confined environment is enriched with CO2 — mostly in ecosystems for which the vegetation is short in stature, to reduce costs. A small number of enrichment experiments have been conducted in young forests, but there is a paucity of knowledge about the CO2-fertilization effect in mature forests. Writing in Nature, Jiang et al.2 present results of the Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiment in a mature forest in Australia. Their estimate of the CO2-fertilization effect is among the lowest yet reported.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

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

Nature 580, 191-192 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00962-0

References

  1. Keeling, C. D., Chin, J. F. S. & Whorf, T. P. Nature 382, 146–149 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Jiang, M. et al. Nature 580, 227–231 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Li, Q. et al. Biogeosciences 15, 6909–6925 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Duursma, R. A. et al. Glob. Change Biol. 22, 1666–1676 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ferris, R., Sabatti, M., Miglietta, F., Mills, R. F. & Taylor, G. Plant Cell Environ. 24, 305–315 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Uddling, J., Teclaw, R. M., Kubiske, M. E., Pregitzer, K. S. & Ellsworth, D. S. Tree Physiol. 28, 1231–1243 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. DeLucia, E. H., Drake, J. E., Thomas, R. B. & Gonzales-Meler M. Glob. Change Biol. 13, 1157–1167 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Luo, Y. & Mooney, H. A. in Carbon Dioxide and Terrestrial Ecosystems (eds Koch, G. W. & Mooney, H. A.) 381–397 (Academic, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jiang, C. et al. Glob. Change Biol. 23, 4133–4146 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhu, Z. et al. Nature Clim. Change 6, 791–795 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

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

Search

Advanced search

Quick links