Carbon storage plant

How does carbon storage affect climate regulation?

Carbon storage in vegetation and soil underpins climate regulation through carbon sequestration. Because plant species differ in their ability to capture, store and release carbon, the collective functional characteristics of plant communities (functional diversity) should be a major driver of carbon accumulation in terrestrial ecosystems.

How does carbon storage affect plant growth?

Carbon (C) storage allows a plant to support growth whenever there is a temporal asynchrony between supply (source strength) and demand of carbon (sink strength). This asynchrony is strongly influenced by changes in light and temperature.

Why is carbon storage important?

Storage is a fundamental process where plants build up resources that can be mobilized under future and less favourable conditions to support biosynthesis for growth or other plant functions (Chapin et al. 1990). Carbon (C) storage buffers temporal asynchrony between C supply by photosynthesis and C demand by the different plant organs.

Can plant functional diversity drive carbon storage in ecosystems?

Three major components of plant functional diversity could be put forward as drivers of carbon storage in ecosystems: the most abundant functional trait values, the variety of functional trait values and the abundance of particular species that could have additional effects not incorporated in the first two components.

Does elevated carbon dioxide affect soil carbon storage?

A synthesis of elevated carbon dioxide experiments reveals that when plant biomass is strongly stimulated by elevated carbon dioxide levels, soil carbon storage declines, and where biomass is weakly stimulated, soil carbon accumulates.

What contributes to C storage at the ecosystem level?

Our findings suggest that all three major components of plant functional diversity – the dominant trait values, the variety of trait values and the presence of particular species in the community – contribute to explain C storage at the ecosystem level.