Impacts of global environmental change drivers on non-structural carbohydrates in terrestrial plants

1. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs, including soluble sugars and starch) are essential to support the growth and survival of terrestrial plants. Starch and sugars play different roles in multiple plant ecological functions such as drought tolerance, growth, and plant defense, and several other processes which are being rapidly shaped by global environmental change. However, it is uncertain whether soluble sugars and starch show different responses across plant functional types, tissue types, and treatment conditions (i.e., the intensity and duration of environmental variability) to global-change drivers.

2. Here, based on a database of 275 plants (including 17 plant functional types), we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration (eCO2), nitrogen (N) addition, drought and warming on NSCs and its components.

3. We found NSCs responses to global environmental change were mainly driven by i) soluble sugar changes in response to N add...