Enhanced CO2 uptake is marginally offset by altered fluxes of non‐CO2 greenhouse gases in global forests and grasslands under N deposition

Abstract Despite the increasing impact of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on terrestrial greenhouse gas (GHG) budget, through driving both the net atmospheric CO 2 exchange and the emission or uptake of non‐CO 2 GHGs (CH 4 and N 2 O), few studies have assessed the climatic impact of forests and grasslands under N deposition globally based on different bottom‐up approaches. Here, we quantify the effects of N deposition on biomass C increment, soil organic C (SOC), CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes and, ultimately, the net ecosystem GHG balance of forests and grasslands using a global comprehensive dataset. We showed that N addition significantly increased plant C uptake (net primary production) in forests and grasslands, to a larger extent for the aboveground C (aboveground net primary production), whereas it only caused a small or insignificant enhancement of SOC pool in both upland systems. Nitrogen addition had no significant effect on soil heterotrophic respiration ( R H ) in both forests and grasslands, while a significant N‐induced increase in soil CO 2 fluxes ( R S , soil respiration) was observed in grasslands. Nitrogen addition significantly stimulated soil N 2 O fluxes in forests (76%), to a larger extent in grasslands (87%), but showed a consistent trend to decrease soil uptake of CH 4 , suggesting a declined sink capacity of forests and grasslands for atmospheric CH 4 under N enrichment. Overall, the net GHG balance estimated by the net ecosystem production‐based method (forest, 1.28 Pg CO 2 ‐eq year −1 vs. grassland, 0.58 Pg CO 2 ‐eq year −1 ) was greater than those estimated using the SOC‐based method (forest, 0.32 Pg CO 2 ‐eq year −1 vs. grassland, 0.18 Pg CO 2 ‐eq year −1 ) caused by N addition. Our findings revealed that the enhanced soil C sequestration by N addition in global forests and grasslands could be only marginally offset (1.5%–4.8%) by the combined effects of its stimulation of N 2 O emissions together with the reduced soil uptake of CH 4 .