Nitrogen Pollution Boosts Plant Growth In Tropics By 20 Percent

“We hope our results will improve global change forecasts,” said David LeBauer, graduate student researcher of Earth system science at UCI and lead author of the study. Using data from more than 100 previously published studies, LeBauer and Kathleen Treseder, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCI, analyzed global trends in nitrogen’s effect on growth rates in ecosystems ranging from tropical forests and grasslands to wetlands and tundra. Nitrogen, they found, increased plant growth in all ecosystems except for deserts. Surprisingly, tropical forests that were seasonally dry, located in mountainous regions or had regrown from slash-and-burn agriculture also responded to added nitrogen. Although these are not the tropical forests that typically come to mind, they collectively account for more than half of the world’s tropical forests. ... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080206111244.htm

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