Maestria

GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, VOL. 26, GB3007, doi:10.1029/2011GB004252, 2012

Global nutrient limitation in terrestrial vegetation
Joshua B. Fisher,1 Grayson Badgley,1 and Eleanor Blyth2Received 7 November 2011; revised 6 June 2012; accepted 5 July 2012; published 3 August 2012.

[1] Most vegetation is limited in productivity by nutrient availability, but the magnitude of limitationglobally is not known. Nutrient limitation is directly relevant not only to ecology and agriculture, but also to the global carbon cycle by regulating how much atmospheric CO2 the terrestrial biosphere cansequester. We attempt to identify total nutrient limitation in terrestrial plant productivity globally using ecophysiological theory and new developments in remote sensing for evapotranspiration andplant productivity. Our map of nutrient limitation qualitatively reproduces known regional nutrient gradients (e.g., across Amazonia), highlights differences in nutrient addition to croplands (e.g.,between “developed” and “developing” countries), identifies the role of nutrients on the distribution of major biomes (e.g., tree line migration in boreal North America), and compares similarly to aground-based test along the Long Substrate Age Gradient in Hawaii, U.S.A. (e.g., foliar and soil nutrients, litter decomposition). Nonetheless, challenges in representing light and water useefficiencies, disturbance, and comparison to ground data with multiple interacting nutrients provide avenues for further progress on refining such a global map. Global average reduction in terrestrial plantproductivity was within 16–28%, depending on treatment of disturbance; these values can be compared to global carbon cycle model estimates of carbon uptake reduction with nutrient cycle inclusion.Citation: Fisher, J. B., G. Badgley, and E. Blyth (2012), Global nutrient limitation in terrestrial vegetation, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 26, GB3007, doi:10.1029/2011GB004252.

1. Introduction
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