Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Forest soils are running short of nutrients as CO2 emissions rise

Analyses of a Swedish tree-ring archive suggest that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide has lowered soil-nitrogen supply, which could cap carbon storage by land ecosystems.
By
  1. Christine L. Goodale

    1. Christine L. Goodale is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

  2. Hannah M. Monti

    1. Hannah M. Monti is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient, and plant growth is regularly limited by short supplies of plant-available nitrogen — the nitrogen compounds that plants can use to grow — in the soil. Researchers often use the ratio of the stable isotopes nitrogen-15 and nitrogen-14 in plant tissue, expressed as a quantity known as δ15N, as an indicator of the availability of nitrogen in ecosystems1,2. Writing in Nature, Bassett et al.3 present an extensive set of measurements that reveal declines in δ15N across Swedish forests from 1961 to 2018. The findings support long-proposed theories that carbon dioxide-driven stimulation of tree growth could reduce soil nitrogen availability in terrestrial ecosystems1,2,4. The resulting shortage could constrain the ability of those ecosystems to sequester carbon in the future, meaning that larger reductions in fossil-fuel emissions than those currently projected would be needed to meet climate targets.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 650, 560-561 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00287-4

References

  1. Craine, J. M. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. 2, 1735–1744 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Mason, R. E. et al. Science 376, abh3767 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bassett, K. R. et al. Nature 650, 629–635 (2026).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Luo, Y. et al. BioScience 54, 731–739 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Olff, H. et al. Science 376, 1169–1170 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Vitousek, P. M., Cen, X. & Groffman, P. M. Biogeochemistry 167, 793–806 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Norby, R. J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 19368–19373 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Cambron, T. W. et al. Nature Clim. Change 15, 935–946 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Canadell, J. G. et al. in Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis 673–816 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021).

  10. Zaehle, S., Jones, C. D., Houlton, B., Lamarque, J.-F. & Robertson, E. J. Clim. 28, 2494–2511 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Galloway J. N. et al. Science 320, 889–892 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Ackerman, D., Millet, D. B. & Chen, X. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 33, 100–107 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links