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.

Biogeochemistry

A faulty fertilizer

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 857–858 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Elevated levels of CO2 can stimulate photosynthesis in plants and increase their uptake of atmospheric carbon. A five-year study in Minnesota grasslands shows that increased plant uptake of CO2 is restricted by the availability of vital nutrients and water.

Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations from fossil-fuel combustion and tropical deforestation are driving rapid changes in the Earth's climate. Plants could help mitigate rising atmospheric CO2 levels: plants take CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, and convert it to biomass carbon and soil organic matter. Theoretically, elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations could act as a fertilizer, increasing plant growth that in turn draws more CO2 from the atmosphere1,2. This CO2 fertilization of plants could potentially serve to offset some of the CO2 emissions from human activities and help slow climate change. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Reich and colleagues3 provide evidence to the contrary — that elevated levels of CO2 alone are unlikely to stimulate increased plant uptake of carbon because other resources in addition to CO2 simultaneously limit plant growth.

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

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

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

Figure 1: The BioCON experiment in Minnesota, USA.

CEDAR CREEK ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE RESERVE

References

  1. Norby, R. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 18052–18056 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Delucia, E. et al. Science 284, 1177–1179 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Reich, P. B., Hobbie, S. E. & Lee, T. D. Nature Geosci. 7, 920–924 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sala, O. E., Parton, W. J., Joyce, L. A. & Lauenroth, W. K. Ecology 69, 40–45 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hooper D. U. & Johnson, L. Biogeochemistry 46, 247–293 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Dukes, J. S. et al. PLoS Biol. 3, 1829–1837 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Reich, P. B. et al. Nature 440, 922–925 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Morgan, J. A. et al. Nature 476, 202–205 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. http://www.biocon.umn.edu

  10. Fowler, D. et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20130164 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Whendee L. Silver is in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA,

    Whendee L. Silver

Authors
  1. Whendee L. Silver
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Whendee L. Silver.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Silver, W. A faulty fertilizer. Nature Geosci 7, 857–858 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2292

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2292

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