Nitrogen and Climate Change
- B. A. Hungate is in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA. E-mail: bruce.hungate{at}nau.edu.
- J. S. Dukes, M. R. Shaw, and C. B. Field are in the Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
- Y. Luo is in the Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Summary
Models project that land ecosystems may be able take up a considerable proportion of the carbon dioxide released by human activities, thereby counteracting the anthropogenic emissions. In their Perspective, Hungate et al. argue that these carbon uptake estimates are too high because the models do not take other nutrients such as nitrogen into account appropriately. The authors estimate that there will not be enough nitrogen available to sustain the high carbon uptake scenarios. Nutrients other than nitrogen may also affect carbon uptake in ways not captured by most models.
