Nitrogen status regulates morphological adaptation of marsh plants to elevated CO2

Meng Lu (), Ellen R. Herbert, J. Adam Langley, Matthew L. Kirwan and J. Patrick Megonigal ()
Additional contact information
Meng Lu: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Ellen R. Herbert: College of William and Mary
J. Adam Langley: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Matthew L. Kirwan: College of William and Mary
J. Patrick Megonigal: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Nature Climate Change, 2019, vol. 9, issue 10, 764-768

Abstract: Abstract Coastal wetlands provide valuable ecosystem services that are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic activities1. The atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has increased from 280 ppm to 404 ppm since the Industrial Revolution and is projected to exceed 900 ppm by 2100 (ref. 2). In terrestrial ecosystems, elevated CO2 typically stimulates C3 plant photosynthesis and primary productivity leading to an increase in plant size3. However, compared with woody plants or crops4, the morphological responses of clonal non-woody plants to elevated CO2 have rarely been examined. We show that 30 years of experimental CO2 enrichment in a brackish marsh increased primary productivity and stem density but decreased stem diameter and height of the dominant clonal species Schoenoplectus americanus. Smaller, denser stems were associated with the expansion of roots and rhizomes to alleviate nitrogen (N) limitation as evidenced by high N immobilization in live tissue and litter, high tissue C:N ratio and low available porewater N. Changes in morphology and tissue chemistry induced by elevated CO2 were reversed by N addition. We demonstrate that morphological responses to CO2 and N supply in a clonal plant species influences the capacity of marshes to gain elevation at rates that keep pace with rising sea levels.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0582-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcli:v:9:y:2019:i:10:d:10.1038_s41558-019-0582-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nclimate/

DOI: 10.1038/s41558-019-0582-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Climate Change is currently edited by Bronwyn Wake

More articles in Nature Climate Change from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().