Increasing CO2 from subambient to elevated concentrations increases grassland respiration per unit of net carbon fixation

Authors

H. Wayne Polley, USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research LaboratoryFollow
Patricia C. Meilnick, Blackland Research and Extension Center
William A. Dugas, Blackland Research and Extension Center
Hyrum B. Johnson, USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory
Joaquin Sanabria, Blackland Research and Extension Center

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Published in Global Change Biology (2006) 12, 1390–1399.

Abstract

Respiration (carbon efflux) by terrestrial ecosystems is a major component of the global carbon (C) cycle, but the response of C efflux to atmospheric CO₂ enrichment remains uncertain. Respiration may respond directly to an increase in the availability of C substrates at high CO₂, but also may be affected indirectly by a CO₂-mediated alteration in the amount by which respiration changes per unit of change in temperature or C uptake (sensitivity of respiration to temperature or C uptake).