Effects of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition and the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to store carbon (C) depend in part on the amount of N retained in the system and its partitioning among plant and soil pools. We conducted a meta‐analysis of studies at 48 sites across four continents that used enriched 15 N isotope tracers in order to synthesize information about total ecosystem N retention (i.e., total ecosystem 15 N r...

Vegetation albedo is a critical component of the Earth's climate system, yet efforts to evaluate and improve albedo parameterizations in climate models have lagged relative to other aspects of model development. Here, we calculated growing season albedos for deciduous and evergreen forests, crops, and grasslands based on over 40 site‐years of data from the AmeriFlux network and compared them with estimates presently used in th...

Seven years of carbon dioxide flux measurements indicate that a ∼90‐year‐old spruce dominated forest in Maine, USA, has been sequestering 174±46 g C m −2 yr −1 (mean±1 standard deviation, nocturnal friction velocity ( u * ) threshold >0.25 m s −1 ). An analysis of monthly flux anomalies showed that above‐average spring and fall temperatures were significantly correlated with greater monthly C uptake while above‐average summer...