The value of soil respiration measurements for interpreting and modeling terrestrial carbon cycling

Water availability is one of the fundamental drivers for biological activities and terrestrial carbon cycling. Although the response of soil respiration to precipitation has been well documented in arid and semiarid ecosystems, our understanding of its pattern in forests is rather limited. This study was conducted to examine the difference of precipitation effect on soil respiration under different canopy conditions in a temperate coniferous (Pinus armandii Franch) and broadleaved (Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata) mixed forest in Central China. The results showed that precipitation significantly reduced soil temperature, but increased soil volumetric water content and soil respiration (6.0%-35.3%). Precipitation caused a greater increment in soil respiration beneath the canopy of broadleaved trees (24.2%) than that beneath coniferous ones (13.5%). Precipitation-induced increase in soil respiration was consistently lower beneath the canopy of small size classes (7.1%-32.6%) than large size classes (9.5%-33.3%). Mean soil respiration of forest gaps increased 22.4% following precipitations. Our study highlights the positive response of soil respiration to precipitation pulses in water-unlimited ecosystems. The findings suggest that the spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration to precipitation pulse under different canopy conditions should be emphasized while assessing terrestrial carbon cycling and its feedback to climate change.

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Erratum to: The value of soil respiration measurements for interpreting and modeling terrestrial carbon cycling

Plant and Soil ◽

10.1007/s11104-016-3136-2 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 413 (1-2) ◽

pp. 27-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Claire L. Phillips ◽

Ben Bond-Lamberty ◽

Ankur R. Desai ◽

Martin Lavoie ◽

Dave Risk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Respiration ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Terrestrial Carbon

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Historical climate controls soil respiration responses to current soil moisture

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1620811114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (24) ◽

pp. 6322-6327 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Christine V. Hawkes ◽

Bonnie G. Waring ◽

Jennifer D. Rocca ◽

Stephanie N. Kivlin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Soil Moisture ◽

Soil Respiration ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Large Scale ◽

Microbial Respiration ◽

Rainfall Gradient ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Historical Climate ◽

Moisture Dependence

Ecosystem carbon losses from soil microbial respiration are a key component of global carbon cycling, resulting in the transfer of 40–70 Pg carbon from soil to the atmosphere each year. Because these microbial processes can feed back to climate change, understanding respiration responses to environmental factors is necessary for improved projections. We focus on respiration responses to soil moisture, which remain unresolved in ecosystem models. A common assumption of large-scale models is that soil microorganisms respond to moisture in the same way, regardless of location or climate. Here, we show that soil respiration is constrained by historical climate. We find that historical rainfall controls both the moisture dependence and sensitivity of respiration. Moisture sensitivity, defined as the slope of respiration vs. moisture, increased fourfold across a 480-mm rainfall gradient, resulting in twofold greater carbon loss on average in historically wetter soils compared with historically drier soils. The respiration–moisture relationship was resistant to environmental change in field common gardens and field rainfall manipulations, supporting a persistent effect of historical climate on microbial respiration. Based on these results, predicting future carbon cycling with climate change will require an understanding of the spatial variation and temporal lags in microbial responses created by historical rainfall.

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Variable silicon accumulation in plants affects terrestrial carbon cycling by controlling lignin synthesis

Global Change Biology ◽

10.1111/gcb.13845 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. e183-e189 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Thimo Klotzbücher ◽

Anika Klotzbücher ◽

Klaus Kaiser ◽

Doris Vetterlein ◽

Reinhold Jahn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Cycling ◽

Terrestrial Carbon ◽

Lignin Synthesis ◽

Silicon Accumulation

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Improvement of Soil Respiration Parameterization in a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model and Its Impact on the Simulation of Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-18-0018.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 127-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dongmin Kim ◽

Myong-In Lee ◽

Eunkyo Seo

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Soil Respiration ◽

Soil Temperature ◽

Vegetation Type ◽

Carbon Fluxes ◽

Decomposition Process ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽

In Situ Observation ◽

Terrestrial Carbon ◽

Soil Temperature And Moisture

Abstract The Q10 value represents the soil respiration sensitivity to temperature often used for the parameterization of the soil decomposition process has been assumed to be a constant in conventional numerical models, whereas it exhibits significant spatial and temporal variation in the observations. This study develops a new parameterization method for determining Q10 by considering the soil respiration dependence on soil temperature and moisture obtained by multiple regression for each vegetation type. This study further investigates the impacts of the new parameterization on the global terrestrial carbon flux. Our results show that a nonuniform spatial distribution of Q10 tends to better represent the dependence of the soil respiration process on heterogeneous surface vegetation type compared with the control simulation using a uniform Q10. Moreover, it tends to improve the simulation of the relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature and moisture, particularly over cold and dry regions. The modification has an impact on the soil respiration and carbon decomposition process, which changes gross primary production (GPP) through controlling nutrient assimilation from soil to vegetation. It leads to a realistic spatial distribution of GPP, particularly over high latitudes where the original model has a significant underestimation bias. Improvement in the spatial distribution of GPP leads to a substantial reduction of global mean GPP bias compared with the in situ observation-based reference data. The results highlight that the enhanced sensitivity of soil respiration to the subsurface soil temperature and moisture introduced by the nonuniform spatial distribution of Q10 has contributed to improving the simulation of the terrestrial carbon fluxes and the global carbon cycle.

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Consistent Effects of Canopy vs. Understory Nitrogen Addition on Soil Respiration and Net Ecosystem Production in Moso Bamboo Forests

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12101427 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 1427

Author(s):

Chunju Cai ◽

Zhihan Yang ◽

Liang Liu ◽

Yunsen Lai ◽

Junjie Lei ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Respiration ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Forest Canopy ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

N Deposition ◽

Net Ecosystem Production ◽

Moso Bamboo ◽

Atmospheric N Deposition ◽

Ecosystem Carbon ◽

Ecosystem Production

Nitrogen (N) deposition has been well documented to cause substantial impacts on ecosystem carbon cycling. However, the majority studies of stimulating N deposition by direct N addition to forest floor have neglected some key ecological processes in forest canopy (e.g., N retention and absorption) and might not fully represent realistic atmospheric N deposition and its effects on ecosystem carbon cycling. In this study, we stimulated both canopy and understory N deposition (50 and 100 kg N ha−1 year−1) with a local atmospheric NHx:NOy ratio of 2.08:1, aiming to assess whether canopy and understory N deposition had similar effects on soil respiration (RS) and net ecosystem production (NEP) in Moso bamboo forests. Results showed that RS, soil autotrophic (RA), and heterotrophic respiration (RH) were 2971 ± 597, 1472 ± 579, and 1499 ± 56 g CO2 m−2 year−1 for sites without N deposition (CN0), respectively. Canopy and understory N deposition did not significantly affect RS, RA, and RH, and the effects of canopy and understory N deposition on these soil fluxes were similar. NEP was 1940 ± 826 g CO2 m−2 year−1 for CN0, which was a carbon sink, indicating that Moso bamboo forest the potential to play an important role alleviating global climate change. Meanwhile, the effects of canopy and understory N deposition on NEP were similar. These findings did not support the previous predictions postulating that understory N deposition would overestimate the effects of N deposition on carbon cycling. However, due to the limitation of short duration of N deposition, an increase in the duration of N deposition manipulation is urgent and essential to enhance our understanding of the role of canopy processes in ecosystem carbon fluxes in the future.

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Nanodeserts: A Conjecture in Nanotechnology to Enhance Quasi-Photosynthetic CO2Absorption

International Journal of Polymer Science ◽

10.1155/2016/5027879 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wenfeng Wang ◽

Xi Chen ◽

Yifan Zhang ◽

Jianjun Yu ◽

Tianyi Ma ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Respiration ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Temperature Sensitivity ◽

Land Surface ◽

Groundwater System ◽

Stable Temperature ◽

The Future ◽

Arid And Semiarid

This paper advances “nanodeserts” as a conjecture on the possibility of developing the hierarchical structured polymeric nanomaterials for enhancing abiotic CO2fixation in the soil-groundwater system beneath deserts (termed as quasi-photosynthetic CO2absorption). Arid and semiarid deserts ecosystems approximately characterize one-third of the Earth’s land surface but play an unsung role in the carbon cycling, considering the huge potentials of such CO2absorption to expand insights to the long-sought missing CO2sink and the naturally unneglectable turbulence in temperature sensitivities of soil respiration it produced. “Nanodeserts” as a reconciled concept not only indicate a conjecture in nanotechnology to enhance quasi-photosynthetic CO2absorption, but also aim to present to the desert researchers a better understanding of the footprints of abiotic CO2transport, conversion, and assignment in the soil-groundwater system beneath deserts. Meanwhile, nanodeserts allow a stable temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in deserts by largely reducing the CO2release above the deserts surface and highlighting the abiotic CO2fixation beneath deserts. This may be no longer a novelty in the future.

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Late Quaternary climate variability and terrestrial carbon cycling in tropical South America

10.1575/1912/7741 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kyrstin L. Fornace

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Climate Variability ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Terrestrial Carbon ◽

Quaternary Climate ◽

Tropical South America

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Synergistic effects of four climate change drivers on terrestrial carbon cycling

Nature Geoscience ◽

10.1038/s41561-020-00657-1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 787-793

Author(s):

Peter B. Reich ◽

Sarah E. Hobbie ◽

Tali D. Lee ◽

Roy Rich ◽

Melissa A. Pastore ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Synergistic Effects ◽

Terrestrial Carbon ◽

Climate Change Drivers

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Spatial variability of carbon allocation to soil autotrophic respiration in global forest ecosystems

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9154 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xiaolu Tang ◽

Yuehong Shi ◽

Xinrui Luo ◽

Liang Liu ◽

Jinshi Jian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Respiration ◽

Carbon Cycling ◽

Forest Ecosystems ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Carbon Allocation ◽

Forest Carbon ◽

Autotrophic Respiration ◽

Biogeochemical Models ◽

Temporal And Spatial ◽

Spatio Temporal

Belowground or &#8216;soil&#8217; autotrophic respiration (RAsoil) depends on carbohydrates from photosynthesis flowing to roots and rhizospheres, and is one of the most important but uncertain components in forest carbon cycling. Carbon allocation plays an important role in forest carbon cycling and reflects forest adaptation to changing environmental conditions. However, carbon allocation to RAsoil is rarely measured directly and has not been fully examined at the global scale. To fill this knowledge gap, the spatio-temporal patterns of RAsoil with a spatial resolution of half degree from 1981 to 2017 were predicted by Random Forest (RF) algorithm using the most updated Global Soil Respiration Database (v5) with global environmental variables; carbon allocation from photosynthesis to RAsoil (CAsoil), was calculated as the ratio of RAsoil to gross primary production (GPP); and its temporal and spatial patterns were assessed in global forest ecosystems. We found strong temporal and spatial variabilities of RAsoil with an increasing trend from boreal forests to tropical forests. Globally, mean RAsoil from forests was 8.9 &#177; 0.08 Pg C yr-1 (mean &#177; standard deviation) from 1981 to 2017 increasing at a rate of 0.0059 Pg C yr-2, paralleling broader soil respiration changes and indicating an increasing carbon loss respired by roots. Mean CAsoil was 0.243 &#177; 0.016 and showed a decreasing trend over time, although there were interannual variabilities, indicating that CAsoil was sensitive to environmental changes. The temporal trend of CAsoil varied greatly in space, reflecting uneven responses of CAsoil to environmental changes. The spatio-temporal variability of carbon allocation should be considered in global biogeochemical models to accurately predict belowground carbon cycling in an era of ongoing climate change.&#160;

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