Nitrogen has key role in estimating CO2 emissions from land use change

A new global-scale modeling study that takes into account nitrogen — a key nutrient for plants — estimates that carbon emissions from human activities on land were 40 percent higher in the 1990s than in studies that did not account for nitrogen. Plant regrowth — and therefore carbon assimilation by plants — is limited by nitrogen availability, causing other studies to overestimate regrowth and underestimate net emissions from the harvest-regrowth cycle.

Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoi…