Researchers report that in a 12-year free-air CO2 enrichment experiment in a Minnesota grassland, elevated CO2 enhanced soil respiration and boosted microbial carbon degradation genes under low nitrogen conditions but not under high nitrogen conditions, a finding that can improve forecasting of the effects of CO2 and nitrogen levels on soil respiration and suggests that elevated CO2 has a deteriorating effect on climate change mitigation in soil systems deficient in nitrogen.
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Article #20-02780: "Stimulation of soil respiration by elevated CO2 is enhanced under nitrogen limitation in a decade-long grassland study," by Qun Gao et al.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences