Ecosystems (2006) 9: 152–155 DOI: 10.1007/s10021-005-0036-3 COMMENTARY Is Net Ecosystem Production Equal to Ecosystem Carbon Accumulation? Gary M. Lovett,* Jonathan J. Cole, and Michael L. Pace Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York 12545, USA ABSTRACT Net ecosystem production (NEP), defined as the maintains the conceptual coherence between NEP difference between gross primary production and and net primary production and that it is total ecosystem respiration, represents the total congruous with the widely accepted definitions amount of organic carbon in an ecosystem of ecosystem autotrophy and heterotrophy. available for storage, export as organic carbon, or Careful evaluation of NEP highlights the various nonbiological oxidation to carbon dioxide potential fates of nonrespired carbon in an eco- through fire or ultraviolet oxidation. In some of system. the recent literature, especially that on terrestrial ecosystems, NEP has been redefined as the rate of Key words: net ecosystem production; carbon organic carbon accumulation in the system. Here accumulation; net primary production; gross pri- we argue that retaining the original definition mary production; total ecosystem respiration. INTRODUCTION (Woodwell and Whittaker 1968). The reporting of NEP for various ecosystems has increased in recent Net ecosystem production (NEP) is a fundamental years as ecosystem scientists investigate more fully property of ecosystems. It was originally defined by the controls on the C balance of the biosphere. Woodwell and Whittaker (1968) as the difference However, terrestrial ecosystem studies often esti- between the amount of organic carbon (C) fixed by mate NEP as the rate of C accumulation, (for photosynthesis in an ecosystem (gross primary example; Lichter 1998; Caspersen and others 2000; production, or GPP) and total ecosystem respiration Wirth and others 2002), and a recent paper and Re (the sum of autotrophic and heterotrophic res- even a widely read textbook explicitly equate NEP piration). Defined this way, NEP represents organic with C accumulation rate (Randerson and others C available for storage within the system or loss 2002; Chapin and others 2002). The goal of this from it by export or nonbiological oxidation. The essay is to explain why, in our view, this is incor- sign of NEP defines whether an ecosystem is auto- rect. trophic (NEP greater than zero, as in a typical forest NEP can best be understood within the context of or grassland) or heterotrophic (NEP less than zero, a complete organic C balance for an ecosystem, as in cities and many lakes and rivers). The original which can be written as: definition of NEP as the difference between GPP and R is conceptually parallel to the definition of net e DC ¼ GPP þ I À R À E À Ox ð1Þ primary production (NPP), which is the difference org e nb between GPP and autotrophic respiration where GPP and Re are as defined above, DCorg is the change in organic C storage in the ecosystem, I Received 18 March 2005; accepted 11 May 2005; published online 30 January 2006. is the import of organic C, E is the export of organic *Corresponding author; e-mail: [email protected] C, and Oxnb is nonbiological oxidation of C, for 152 Net Ecosystem Production and Carbon Storage 153 Figure 1. Fates of organic carbon (C) fixed in or imported into an ecosystem. Total ecosystem respiration (Re) is the sum of autotrophic respiration (Ra) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh). The shaded area contains the components of the NEP of the system. ‘‘Accumulation in biomass’’ represents all biomass (plant, animal, or microbial); the arrow is drawn from NPP in this diagram because plant biomass accumulation is generally the largest biomass term. NPP, net primary production; NEP, net ecosystem production; GPP, gross primary production; CO2, carbon dioxide; UV, ultraviolet. instance by fire or ultraviolet (UV) oxidation. This Equation 4 and Figure 1 illustrate the potential equation requires one to specify the boundaries of fates of NEP, plus any organic C imported into the the ecosystem and a specific time interval over system, as either (a) storage in the ecosystem, for which the change in C storage is evaluated. The instance as an increment of the organic C pool in terms in Eq. 1 are usually expressed as mass of C vegetation, soils, or sediments; or (b) export from per unit area for that specified time interval, or the ecosystem, for instance as dissolved organic C, sometimes as instantaneous rates (i.e., mass area)1 particulate C, or as harvest removal of organic time)1). material; or (c) nonbiological oxidation by fire or If NEP is defined as: UV oxidation. Thus, NEP represents the C poten- tially available for storage within a system, but not NEP ¼ GPP À R ð2Þ e all of the NEP is necessarily stored. Similarly, some C that is stored within an ecosystem may have been then imported into the ecosystem rather than fixed there, and would not contribute to the system’s D 3 NEP ¼ Corg þ E þ Oxnb À I ð Þ NEP. A few simple examples will help to clarify these and points. First, consider a forest ecosystem, with the lower bound of the ecosystem set at the bottom of NEP þ I ¼ DCorg þ E þ Oxnb ð4Þ the rooting zone. If some of the C that is fixed by photosynthesis in the forest leaches below the In aquatic ecosystems, NEP is usually measured rooting zone as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), directly from the mass balance of oxygen (O2)or that C is not stored in the ecosystem but represents carbon dioxide (CO2) (for example, Cole and others part of the NEP because it is fixed by the autotrophs 2000; Hanson and others 2003). Total respiration is but not respired within the ecosystem. Likewise, if obtained from the gas balance at night (when GPP this forest grows for 50 years and then is harvested, is zero) and then GPP is calculated from Eq. 2. This with some of the woody material removed from the gas balance approach is also the basis for estimating ecosystem, the C in the harvested wood should be NEP in some terrestrial systems using eddy covari- included in the calculation of NEP even though it ance techniques, or globally using large-scale was exported from the system. This is exactly par- atmospheric data with some additional isotopic allel to the fact that herbivory and detrital losses are measurements (for example, Luz and others 1999). included in the calculation of NPP. In terrestrial studies, however, NEP is often calcu- A somewhat more problematic issue is the cal- lated by summing the fates of NEP in the ecosys- culation of NEP if the forest were burned rather tem, usually just using the DCorg term and ignoring than harvested. Some of the C lost during the fire the other terms on the right-hand side of Eq. 3. would be exported from the system as organic C in 154 G. M. Lovett and others soot and smoke, and some of it would be nonbio- become a very large sink for atmospheric CO2 in logically oxidized to CO2. Both of these losses the industrial era, storing some 2 Gt C/y at present. should be included if NEP is calculated by summing This storage is almost entirely due to the diffusion its potential fates, as in Eq. 3. For example, if a of atmospheric CO2 into sea water that in the 2 forest accumulated 100 g C/m /y over 50 years, preindustrial era, when CO2 levels were lower, had and in year 50 a fire consumed all of the accumu- been in equilibrium with the atmosphere. Biology lated 5,000 g C/m2, the NEP over the 50-year is a very minor factor in this flux (for example, period would still be 5,000 g C/m2 even though Siegenthaler and Sarmiento 1993; Broecker and there would be no C accumulation in the system. others 1979). In this case, the fate of the NEP is in the export and Randerson and others (2002) suggest that the nonbiological oxidation terms of Eq. 3. definition of NEP be changed to equate NEP with Consider also a lake ecosystem surrounded by a the rate of C accumulation in the ecosystem. They forest. If leaves from the forest blow into the lake, argue that we need a term for C accumulation, and then sink to the bottom of the lake and accumulate that the term ‘‘NEP’’ should be appropriated for in the sediments, does this C storage increase the that use. We maintain that NEP has a different NEP of the lake? The answer is no, because the meaning, and that the change in the organic C pool leaves contribute equally to the import (I) and C per unit time should simply be called the organic accumulation (DCorg) terms in Eq. 3, so the NEP is carbon accumulation rate. It would be positive for not affected. If the leaves were partially decom- an increment in C and negative for a decrement. posed before storage in the sediments, the CO2 loss Net ecosystem production is a useful term for a would increase ecosystem respiration and thus concept that is different from C accumulation – it is cause the lake’s NEP to be more negative. This type the amount of organic C fixed in an ecosystem that of C subsidy from terrestrial ecosystems is the rea- is not respired there and is therefore available for son that lakes can simultaneously have positive C accumulation, export, or nonbiological oxidation. accumulation and negative NEP. Net ecosystem production may be a good approxi- Measuring NEP can be challenging, especially in mation of the organic C accumulation rate within terrestrial ecosystems.