New research from the University of New Hampshire shows the effects of climate change on forests in the northeast may be more complicated than previously thought. Forests store a lot of carbon [in the trees], but soil stores about two thirds of the carbon in land ecosystems – more than the carbon in the atmosphere and in vegetation combined. Microbes in soils decompose that carbon and release it back into the atmosphere. As the planet warms, scientists are trying to understand how the balance of carbon stored and carbon released is changing. …But this study looked at the interaction between two changes: the warming of soil and the increase of nitrogen. That increase is another effect of burning fossil fuels, with nitrogen put into the atmosphere by fuel combustion and car exhaust and then deposited on land.