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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #394583
Research Project: Experimentally Assessing and Modeling the Impact of Climate and Management on the Resiliency of Crop-Weed-Soil Agro-Ecosystems

Location: Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory

Title: Decade-long CO2 fertilization reduces soil phosphorus availability in rice paddy fields

Author
item WANG, YU - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item HUANG, YUANYUAN - Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
item SONG, LIAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item YUAN, JIAHUI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item LI, WEI - Nanjing University
item ZHU, YONGGUAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item CHANG, SCOTT - University Of Alberta
item LUO, YIQI - Northern Arizona University
item CIAIS, PHILIPPE - Université Paris-Saclay
item PEÑUELAS, JOSEP - Centre For Ecological Research And Forestry Applications (CREAF)
item Wolf, Julie
item CADE-MENUN, BARBARA - Advancing Wheat Technologies
item HU, SHUIJIN - North Carolina State University
item WANG, LEI - Nanjing Institute Of Environmental Sciences
item WANG DENGIUN - Auburn University
item YUAN, ZENGWEI - Nanjing University
item WANG, YUJUN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item ZHANG, JISHUANG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item TAO, YE - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item WANG, SHENQIANG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item LIU, GANG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item YAN, XIAOYUAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch
item ZHU, CHUNWU - Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Nanjing Branch

Submitted to: Nature Geoscience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/20/2022
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to increase the biomass and yield of many crops such as rice, an important global food staple. However, unlike carbon in the atmosphere and in crop plants, the availability of soil nutrients such as phosphorus is not increasing, and this leads to a risk of crop nutrient limitations. In two Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment (FACE) studies, we grew rice in flooded field conditions under current or elevated (current + 200 ppm) levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and tracked multiple forms of phosphorus in the plants, soils, and grain harvests. The amounts of soil phosphorus in forms available for crop plant uptake decreased significantly, while amounts of phosphorus sequestered in plant-unavailable organic forms increased slightly. These changes were verified using Phosphorus-31 NMR (Nucleic Magnetic Resonance) spectroscopy techniques and suggest that rice yields will be at risk of limitation by phosphorus availability, particularly in low-income nations lacking abundant sources of phosphorus fertilizer.

Technical Abstract: Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for plant metabolism and growth. Its future supply under elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) remains largely uncertain. Herein, we show that in the two longest running (15 and 9 years) rice Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiments, eCO2 decreased soil available P by 26.9 and 21.0%. Such a response was not detected in the initial year or in other short-term FACE experiments. The reduction was driven by an increase in P cached in not readily plant-available soil organic P, and/or by increased removal through crop harvest. The acceleration of biological, biochemical and chemical P transfers into available P was not enough to compensate for reductions under long-term eCO2. We projected a larger risk of rice yield reduction especially in low-income countries under future eCO2 without compensatory additional P fertilizers input, challenging production in poor countries but reducing environmental pollution risk from P loss.