A global database of plant production and carbon exchange from global change manipulative experiments

Jian Song,Xiaoming Li,Zhenxing Zhou,Qian Zhang,Kesheng Zhang,Fanglong Su,Jingyi Ru,Haidao Wang,Xiaojing Yue,Pengshuai Shao,Hongyan Han,Shiqiang Wan,Kejia Yu,Lingjie Lei,Yongge Fan,Mengmei Zheng

doi:10.1038/s41597-020-00661-5

Abstract

Numerous ecosystem manipulative experiments have been conducted since 1970/80 s to elucidate responses of terrestrial carbon cycling to the changing atmospheric composition (CO2 enrichment and nitrogen deposition) and climate (warming and changing precipitation regimes), which is crucial for model projection and mitigation of future global change effects. Here, we extract data from 2,242 publications that report global change manipulative experiments and build a comprehensive global database with 5,213 pairs of samples for plant production (productivity, biomass, and litter mass) and ecosystem carbon exchange (gross and net ecosystem productivity as well as ecosystem and soil respiration). Information on climate characteristics and vegetation types of experimental sites as well as experimental facilities and manipulation magnitudes subjected to manipulative experiments are also included in this database. This global database can facilitate the estimation of response and sensitivity of key terrestrial carbon-cycling variables under future global change scenarios, and improve the robust projection of global change‒terrestrial carbon feedbacks imposed by Earth System Models.

Highlights

Background & SummaryAs a consequence of fossil fuel combustion and food production, atmospheric CO2 concentration and reactive nitrogen deposition have substantially increased[1,2]
Because plants are subject to regionally different co-limitations by CO2, temperature, and the availability of nitrogen and water[6], global change drivers including elevated CO2, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, warming, and changing precipitation regimes can result in complex and likely regionally different effects on ecosystem carbon-cycling variables such as plant production and ecosystem carbon exchange
We presented a database of 5,213 pairs of carbon-cycling variable samples extracted from 2,242 publications that reported results of global change manipulative experiments (GCMEs) over the past four decades (1973–2016)

Summary

Introduction

Background & SummaryAs a consequence of fossil fuel combustion and food production, atmospheric CO2 concentration and reactive nitrogen deposition have substantially increased[1,2]. We presented a database of 5,213 pairs (the control versus global change treatment) of carbon-cycling variable samples extracted from 2,242 publications that reported results of global change manipulative experiments (GCMEs) over the past four decades (1973–2016).

Results

Conclusion