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

Low phosphorus levels limit carbon capture by Amazonian forests

Understanding the processes that affect carbon storage in tropical forests is crucial for assessing the effects of climate change. An experiment reveals that a nutrient shortfall is hampering such carbon capture.
  1. S. Joseph Wright

    1. S. Joseph Wright is at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843–03092, Balboa, Panama.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

A global study of forests1 revealed that, between 1990 and 2007, they converted approximately 29% of human-generated carbon emissions into long-lived plant biomass and soil organic matter. This carbon sink prevents those past emissions from accumulating in the atmosphere and contributing to global climate change. Covering just 7% of Earth’s land surface, tropical forests are responsible for 33% of global biomass production and 50% of the global forest carbon sink1,2. The future of this carbon sink is uncertain, in part because plants sequester nutrients as well as carbon, and this could induce nutrient limitation that stalls plant growth and thereby reduces future carbon sequestration3. The nutrients most likely to limit growth when scarce are nitrogen (corresponding to approximately 1.5% of plant dry matter), phosphorus (0.2%), potassium (1.0%), calcium (0.5%) and magnesium (0.2%).

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 608, 476-477 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02106-y

References

  1. Pan, Y. et al. Science 333, 988–993 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bonan, G. B. Science 320, 1444–1449 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Craine, J. M. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. 2, 1735–1744 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Cunha, H. F. V. et al. Nature 608, 558–562 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Vitousek, P. M. & Sanford, R. L. Jr Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 17, 137–167 (1986).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hedin, L. O., Brookshire, E. N. J., Menge, D. N. L. & Barron, A. R. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 40, 613–635 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ostertag, R. & DiManno, N. M. Front. Earth Sci. 4, 23 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Wright, S. J. Ecol. Monogr. 89, e01382 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lugli, L. F. et al. New Phytol. 230, 116–128 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Muller-Landau, H. C. et al. New Phytol. 229, 3065–3087 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. He, X. et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 13, 5831–5846 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Elser, J. J. et al. Ecol. Lett. 10, 1135–1142 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. LeBauer, D. S. & Treseder, K. K. Ecology 89, 371–379 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Arora, V. K. et al. Biogeosciences 17, 4173–4222 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. IPCC. Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Masson-Delmotte, V. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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