Global Change Biology

Global Change Biogeochemistry

Welcome to Global Change Biology’s virtual special issue highlighting a selection of our recent cutting-edge publications on the effect of global environmental change on biogeochemistry.

In this issue, we have placed a special emphasis on the interaction of global change, food and water. One paper assesses the impacts of global change on agroclimatic conditions (Trnka et al. 2011). Other studies consider the effects of global change on crop yield; wheat production decreases as temperature rises (Asseng et al.2011) and the CO2 fertilization effect will improve the yield of maize and soybean in dry conditions (McGrath and Lobell 2011).

Several papers explore the interaction between global change and soil organic matter (SOM). A meta-analysis of the impact of land-use change on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks identifies which land-use change types result in the highest SOC losses and how these losses can be reversed (Don et al. 2011). A review of the response of SOM decomposition rates to increasing temperature presents a new conceptual model that explicitly identifies the processes controlling SOM availability and factors regulating SOM decomposition (Conant et al. 2011). Another paper presents coordinated approaches to quantifying long-term ecological responses to global change (Luo et al. 2011).

The breadth of this issue is diverse and explores other subjects, from the impacts of extreme climate events and disturbances on carbon dynamics (Stiehl-Braun et al. 2011, Hartmann 2001) to modeling of N2O fluxes and the coupling with CO2 and CH4 fluxes (Linquist et al. in press). We hope you will find the articles included in this special issue interesting and stimulating.

Climate Change, Food and Water

An independent method of deriving the carbon dioxide fertilization effect in dry conditions using historical yield data from wet and dry years
Justin M. McGrath, David B. Lobell

Agroclimatic conditions in Europe under climate change
M. Trnka, Jørgen Eivind Olesen, K. C. Kersebaum et al.

Conversion to soy on the Amazonian agricultural frontier increases streamflow without affecting stormflow dynamics
Shelby J. Hayhoe, Christopher Neill, Stephen Porder et al.

Gas exchange and water relations of spring wheat under full-season infrared warming
Gerard W. Wall, Bruce A. Kimball, Jeffrey W. White, Michael J. Ottman

Impact of tropical land-use change on soil organic carbon stocks - a meta-analysis
Axel Don, Jens Schumacher, Annette Freibauer

Direct measurement of soil organic carbon content change in the croplands of China
Xiaoyuan Yan, Zucong Cai, Shuwei Wang, Pete Smith

The impact of temperature variability on wheat yields
Senthold Asseng, Ian Foster, Neil C. Turner

Effects of land use change and management on the European cropland carbon balance
P. Ciais, S. Gervois, N. Vuichard, S. L. Piao, N. Viovy

Differential responses in two varieties of winter wheat to elevated ozone concentration under fully open-air field conditions
Zhaozhong Feng, Jing Pang, Kazuhiko Kobayashi, Jianguo Zhu, Donald R. Ort

An agronomic assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from major cereal crops
Bruce Linquist, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Maria Arlene Adviento-Borbe et al.

Yield vs. Quality trade-offs for wheat in response to carbon dioxide and ozone
Håkan Pleijel, Johan Uddling

Temperature and soil organic matter decomposition rates – synthesis of current knowledge and a way forward
Richard T. Conant, Michael G. Ryan, Göran I. Ågren et al.

Climate Modelling

Seasonal hysteresis of net ecosystem exchange in response to temperature change: patterns and causes
Shuli Niu, Yiqi Luo, Shenfeng Fei

A historical meta-analysis of global terrestrial net primary productivity: are estimates converging?
Ito Akihiko

Drought

Will a 385 million year-struggle for light become a struggle for water and for carbon? – How trees may cope with more frequent climate change-type drought events
Henrik Hartmann

Interactive effects of drought and N fertilization on the spatial distribution of methane assimilation in grassland soils
Etra A. Stiehl-Braun, Adrian A. Hartmann, Ellen Kandeler, Nina Buchmann. Pascal A. Niklaus

Coordinated approaches to quantify long-term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change
Yiqi Luo, Jerry Melillo, Shuli Niu

Paleo and Modern Observations

A climatic basis for microrefugia: the influence of terrain on climate
Solomon Z. Dobrowski

Disproportional risk for habitat loss of high-altitude endemic species under climate change
Thomas Dirnböck, Franz Essl, Wolfgang Rabitsch

Carbon Sequestration

Temperature and soil organic matter decomposition rates – synthesis of current knowledge and a way forward
Richard T. Conant, Michael G. Ryan, Göran I. Ågren et al.

Reconstruction and attribution of the carbon sink of European forests between 1950 and 2000
Valentin Bellassen, Nicolas Viovy, Sebastiaan Luyssaert et al.

A comparison of repeated soil inventory and carbon flux budget to detect soil carbon stock changes after conversion from cropland to grasslands
Jens Leifeld, Christof Ammann, Albrecht Neftel, Jürg Fuhrer