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Meta-Analysis
. 2020 May;23(5):821-830.
doi: 10.1111/ele.13480. Epub 2020 Feb 25.

Phosphorus alleviation of nitrogen-suppressed methane sink in global grasslands

Lihua Zhang  1   2   3   4 , Fenghui Yuan  3   5 , Junhong Bai  6 , Hongtao Duan  7 , Xueying Gu  4 , Longyu Hou  4 , Yao Huang  4 , Mingan Yang  8 , Jin-Sheng He  9 , Zhenhua Zhang  9 , Lijun Yu  10 , Changchun Song  2 , David A Lipson  3 , Donatella Zona  3 , Walter Oechel  3 , Ivan A Janssens  11 , Xiaofeng Xu  2   3
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Phosphorus alleviation of nitrogen-suppressed methane sink in global grasslands

Lihua Zhang et al. Ecol Lett. 2020 May.

Abstract

Grassland ecosystems account for more than 10% of the global CH4 sink in soils. A 4-year field experiment found that addition of P alone did not affect CH4 uptake and experimental addition of N alone significantly suppressed CH4 uptake, whereas concurrent N and P additions suppressed CH4 uptake to a lesser degree. A meta-analysis including 382 data points in global grasslands corroborated these findings. Global extrapolation with an empirical modelling approach estimated that contemporary N addition suppresses CH4 sink in global grassland by 11.4% and concurrent N and P deposition alleviates this suppression to 5.8%. The P alleviation of N-suppressed CH4 sink is primarily attributed to substrate competition, defined as the competition between ammonium and CH4 for the methane mono-oxygenase enzyme. The N and P impacts on CH4 uptake indicate that projected increases in N and P depositions might substantially affect CH4 uptake and alter the global CH4 cycle.

Keywords: Grassland; methane; nitrogen; phosphorus; substrate competition theory.

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