Long‐Term Elevated CO <sub>2</sub> Improves Soil Health and Rice Yields in Paddy Fields
Soil health underpins the productivity and ecosystem functioning of rice paddies, yet its response to elevated atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> (eCO<sub>2</sub>) remains poorly understood. Here, soil health responses to eCO<sub>2</sub> are evaluated using the two longest-running rice free-air CO<sub>2</sub> enrichment experiments, spanning 12 and 15 years. The results show that long-term eCO<sub>2</sub> significantly improves soil health, strengthening its capacity to support crop production, water purification, and climate change mitigation. Integration of global observations further indicates that these improvements are widespread and cumulative over time, with paddy soils benefiting more than other terrestrial ecosystems. Consequently, long-term eCO<sub>2</sub> exposure tends to enhance rice yield gains, in contrast to the productivity plateau observed in natural ecosystems. These findings provide novel and comprehensive evidence that long-term eCO<sub>2</sub> enhances paddy soil health, improving soil multifunctionality and reinforcing the rice CO<sub>2</sub> fertilization effect.
Authors
- Fan Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2636-1763)
- Josep Peñuelas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7215-0150)
- Zhengkun Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5697-6518)
- Jiabao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8533-4744)
- Hongyan Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9434-7766)
- Weishou Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9452-5665)
- Yu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1329-8208)
- Qicong Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0475-3862)
- Ren Fang Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6474-8198)
- Lin Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7830-5969)
- Kees Jan van Groenigen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9165-3925)
- Fuxun Ai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4794-9315)
- Xiaoyuan Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8645-4836)
- Chuang Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9639-2023)
- Haiyang Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1314-6706)
- Scott X. Chang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7624-439X)
- Ying Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-1120)
- Wei Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0540-1669)
- Dongming Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2762-6567)
- Lian Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4644-2704)
- Chunwu Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7867-322X)
- Jianqiang Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2294-3101)
- Wenchao Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9237-7048)
Institutions
- Nanjing Agricultural University (CN)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Nanjing Normal University (CN)
- University of Alberta (CA)
- Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (CN)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse (CN)
- Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (CN)
- Institute of Urban Environment (CN)
- Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Soil Science (CN)
- Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
- Shandong Agricultural University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2025-12-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202503190
- Primary Topic
- Plant responses to elevated CO2
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- China National Tobacco Corporation
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- National Key Research and Development Program of China