Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Klironomos, J.N
• Allen, M.F
• Rillig, M.C
• Piotrowski, J
• Makvandi-Nejad, S
• Wolfe, B.E
• Powell, J.R

Titel

Abrupt rise in atmospheric CO2 overestimates community response in a model plant-soil system

Ist Teil von

• Nature (London), 2005-02, Vol.433 (7026), p.621-624

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2005

Quelle

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Attempts to understand the ecological effect of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration, [CO2], usually involve exposing today's ecosystems to expected future [CO2] levels. However, a major assumption of these approaches has not been testedthat exposing ecosystems to a single-step increase in [CO2] will yield similar responses to those of a gradual increase over several decades. We tested this assumption on a mycorrhizal fungal community over a period of six years. [CO2] was either increased abruptly, as is typical of most [CO2] experiments, or more gradually over 21 generations. The two approaches resulted in different structural and functional community responses to increased [CO2]. Some fungi were sensitive to the carbon pulse of the abrupt [CO2] treatment. This resulted in an immediate decline in fungal species richness and a significant change in mycorrhizal functioning. The magnitude of changes in fungal diversity and functioning in response to gradually increasing [CO2] was smaller, and not significantly different to those with ambient [CO2]. Our results suggest that studies may overestimate some community responses to increasing [CO2] because biota may be sensitive to ecosystem changes that occur as a result of abrupt increases.