Recent global decline of CO 2 fertilization effects on vegetation photosynthesis

2020/12/10 by Songhan Wang, Yongguang Zhang, Weimin Ju +32 · 17 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Plant responses to elevated CO2

paper · doi:10.1126/science.abb7772

openalex publication_date 2020/12/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

A decline in the carbon fertilization effect One source of uncertainty in climate science is how the carbon fertilization effect (CFE) will contribute to mitigation of anthropogenic climate change. Wang et al. explored the temporal dynamics of CFE on vegetation photosynthesis at the global scale. There has been a decline over recent decades in the contribution of CFE to vegetation photosynthesis, perhaps owing to the limiting effects of plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. This declining trend has not been adequately accounted for in carbon cycle models. CFE thus has limitations for long-term mitigation of climate change, and future warming might currently be underestimated. Science , this issue p. 1295

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