The Carbon-Nitrogen Balance of the Nodule and Its Regulation under Elevated Carbon Dioxide Concentration
Figure 1
The increase of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide will impact nitrogen uptake by the plants to balance ion balances. On the short term, this massive uptake of nitrogen will lead to the depletion of usable nitrogen resources in soil and the enrichment of the rhizosphere in carbon (upper cycles in both (a) and (b)). As a consequence, the limited access to nitrogen will lead to the unbalance between carbon and nitrogen and, as a consequence, to the limited growth of plants. In the case of legumes (b), limited nitrogen availability will enhance nodulation. The biological fixation of the atmospheric dinitrogen associated with the uptake of carbon dioxide will positively impact the net primary production of the plant (NPP). This figure was adapted from [78].
