Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2007, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (2): 175-188.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2007.0023

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

CLIMATE WARMING IMPACTS ON CARBON CYCLING IN TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS

XU Xiao-Feng1,2,4, TIAN Han-Qin2,*(), WAN Shi-Qiang3   

  1. 1Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2Ecosystem Science and Regional Analysis Laboratory, School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn AL36849, USA
    3Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
    4Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2006-11-15 Accepted:2006-12-20 Online:2007-11-15 Published:2007-03-30
  • Contact: TIAN Han-Qin

Abstract:

Climate warming is one key issue of global change and plays an important role on carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. This paper reviews the recent advance in our understanding of global warming and its impacts on terrestrial carbon cycling and underlying mechanisms. We also discuss the state-of-the art in ecosystem modeling and its applications to ecosystem assessment. Climate warming will influence terrestrial carbon cycling in several aspects: 1) net primary productivity (NPP) will decrease in low-latitude region, and increase in mid- and high-latitude zones, totally show an increase on the global scale; 2) soil respiration will increase at the initial stage and then keep relatively stable because of biotic adaptability; 3) plant carbon storage will increase in high-latitude region, and remain stable or even decrease in low-latitude zone, and show a slight increase on the global level; 4) the production and decomposition rate of litterfall will increase; 5) the decomposition rate of soil organic carbon will increase and thus decrease soil carbon stock, meanwhile, soil carbon stock will increase for more carbon input from plant litter. These two processes will trade off in certain degree, resulting in different results for varied ecosystems. On the global scale, soil carbon stock will show a decrease; 6) although the different performances of diverse ecosystems, the global terrestrial ecosystem acts as a weak carbon source. Biophysical, biogeographical and biogeochemical models were developed in the past decades for global change research. In the future research, there are an urgent need to address the interaction among climate warming and other factors including elevated CO2, O3, drought, fire disturbance. The big challenge we are facing is how to deal with the complexity with multi-factors and multi-scales by using experimental and modeling approaches.

Key words: climate warming, terrestrial ecosystem, carbon cycling, ecosystem model