Meta-analysis shows forest soil CO effluxes are dependent on the disturbance regime and biome type.

Forest soil CO efflux (FCO ) is a crucial process in global carbon cycling; however, how FCO responds to disturbance regimes in different forest biomes is poorly understood. We quantified the effects of disturbance regimes on FCO across boreal, temperate, tropical and Mediterranean forests based on 1240 observations from 380 studies. Globally, climatic perturbations such as elevated CO concentration, warming and increased precipitation increase FCO by 13% to 25%.