Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1890/14-1902.1
Title (Primary) Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition predicts local grassland primary production worldwide
Author Stevens, C.J.; Lind, E.M.; Hautier, Y.; Harpole, W.S. ORCID logo ; Borer, E.T.; Hobbie, S.; Seabloom, E.W.; Ladwig, L.; Bakker, J.D.; Chu, C.; Collins, S.; Davies, K.F.; Firn, J.; Hillebrand, H.; Pierre, K.J.L.; MacDougall, A.; Melbourne, B.; McCulley, R.L.; Morgan, J.; Orrock, J.L.; Prober, S.M.; Risch, A.C.; Schuetz, M.; Wragg, P.D.
Source Titel Ecology
Year 2015
Department iDiv; PHYDIV
Volume 96
Issue 6
Page From 1459
Page To 1465
Language englisch
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3307698.v1
Supplements http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/14-1902.1.sm
Keywords Anthropocene; Bayesian analysis; hierarchical regression; nitrogen deposition; Nutrient Network; primary production
UFZ wide themes RU1
Abstract

Humans dominate many important Earth system processes including the nitrogen (N) cycle. Atmospheric N deposition affects fundamental processes such as carbon cycling, climate regulation, and biodiversity, and could result in changes to fundamental Earth system processes such as primary production. Both modelling and experimentation have suggested a role for anthropogenically altered N deposition in increasing productivity, nevertheless, current understanding of the relative strength of N deposition with respect to other controls on production such as edaphic conditions and climate is limited. Here we use an international multiscale data set to show that atmospheric N deposition is positively correlated to aboveground net primary production (ANPP) observed at the 1-m2 level across a wide range of herbaceous ecosystems. N deposition was a better predictor than climatic drivers and local soil conditions, explaining 16% of observed variation in ANPP globally with an increase of 1 kg N·ha−1·yr−1 increasing ANPP by 3%. Soil pH explained 8% of observed variation in ANPP while climatic drivers showed no significant relationship. Our results illustrate that the incorporation of global N deposition patterns in Earth system models are likely to substantially improve estimates of primary production in herbaceous systems. In herbaceous systems across the world, humans appear to be partially driving local ANPP through impacts on the N cycle.

Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=16243
Stevens, C.J., Lind, E.M., Hautier, Y., Harpole, W.S., Borer, E.T., Hobbie, S., Seabloom, E.W., Ladwig, L., Bakker, J.D., Chu, C., Collins, S., Davies, K.F., Firn, J., Hillebrand, H., Pierre, K.J.L., MacDougall, A., Melbourne, B., McCulley, R.L., Morgan, J., Orrock, J.L., Prober, S.M., Risch, A.C., Schuetz, M., Wragg, P.D. (2015):
Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition predicts local grassland primary production worldwide
Ecology 96 (6), 1459 - 1465 10.1890/14-1902.1