Nitrogen availability and summer drought, but not N:P imbalance, drive carbon use efficiency of a Mediterranean tree‐grass ecosystem

Abstract All ecosystems contain both sources and sinks for atmospheric carbon (C). A change in their balance of net and gross ecosystem carbon uptake, ecosystem‐scale carbon use efficiency (CUE ECO ), is a change in their ability to buffer climate change. However, anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is increasing N availability, potentially shifting terrestrial ecosystem stoichiometry towards phosphorus (P) limitation. Depending on how gross primary production (GPP, plants alone) and ecosystem respiration (R ECO , plants and heterotrophs) are limited by N, P or associated changes in other biogeochemical cycles, CUE ECO may change. Seasonally, CUE ECO also varies as the multiple processes that control GPP and respiration and their limitations shift in time. We worked in a Mediterranean tree‐grass ecosystem (locally called ‘dehesa’) characterized by mild, wet winters and summer droughts. We examined CUE ECO from eddy covariance fluxes over 6 years under control, +N and + NP fertilized treatments on three timescales: annual, seasonal (determined by vegetation phenological phases) and 14‐day aggregations. Finer aggregation allowed consideration of responses to specific patterns in vegetation activity and meteorological conditions. We predicted that CUE ECO should be increased by wetter conditions, and successively by N and NP fertilization. Milder and wetter years with proportionally longer growing seasons increased CUE ECO , as did N fertilization, regardless of whether P was added. Using a generalized additive model, whole ecosystem phenological status and water deficit indicators, which both varied with treatment, were the main determinants of 14‐day differences in CUE ECO . The direction of water effects depended on the timescale considered and occurred alongside treatment‐dependent water depletion. Overall, future regional trends of longer dry summers may push these systems towards lower CUE ECO .