scholarly journals Soil moisture modifies the response of soil respiration to temperature in a desert shrub ecosystem

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wang ◽  
T. S. Zha ◽  
X. Jia ◽  
B. Wu ◽  
Y. Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract. The current understanding of the responses of soil respiration (Rs) to soil temperature (Ts) and soil moisture is limited for desert ecosystems. Soil CO2 efflux from a desert shrub ecosystem was measured continuously with automated chambers in Ningxia, northwest China, from June to October 2012. The diurnal responses of Rs to Ts were affected by soil moisture. The diel variation in Rs was strongly related to Ts at 10 cm depth under moderate and high volumetric soil water content (VWC), unlike under low VWC. Ts typically lagged Rs by 3–4 h. However, the lag time varied in relation to VWC, showing increased lag times under low VWC. Over the seasonal cycle, daily mean Rs was correlated positively with Ts, if VWC was higher than 0.08 m3 m−3. Under lower VWC, it became decoupled from Ts. The annual temperature sensitivity of Rs (Q10) was 1.5. The short-term sensitivity of Rs to Ts varied significantly over the seasonal cycle, and correlated negatively with Ts and positively with VWC. Our results highlight the biological causes of diel hysteresis between Rs and Ts, and that the response of Rs to soil moisture may result in negative feedback to climate warming in desert ecosystems. Thus, global carbon cycle models should account the interactive effects of Ts and VWC on Rs in desert ecosystems.

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 9213-9242 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wang ◽  
T. S. Zha ◽  
X. Jia ◽  
B. Wu ◽  
Y. Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract. The response of soil respiration (Rs) to soil temperature and moisture have been well documented in forests, but data and information from desert shrub ecosystems are limited. Soil CO2 efflux from a desert shrub ecosystem was measured continuously with automated chambers in Ningxia, northwest China, from June to October 2012. The responses of Rs to Ts was strongly affected diurnally by soil moisture, with the diel variation in Rs being strongly related to 10 cm soil temperature (Ts) at moderate and high soil volumetric water content (VWC), but less related to Ts at low VWC. Ts typically lagged Rs by 3–4 h, however, the lag time varied in relation to VWC, with increased lag times at low VWC. Over the seasonal cycle, daily mean Rs was positively correlated with Ts when VWC exceeded 0.08 m3 m−3, but became decoupled from Ts when VWC dropped below this threshold. The annual temperature sensitivity of Rs (Q10) was 1.5. The short-term sensitivity of Rs to Ts, computed using three-day windows, varied significantly over the seasonal cycle; the short-term Q10 was negatively correlated with Ts and positively correlated with VWC. These results suggest the potential for a negative feedback to climate warming in desert ecosystems, related to the impact of low soil moisture on Rs. The results highlight the biological causes of diel hysteresis between Rs and Ts and the need for carbon cycle models to account for the interacting effects of Ts and VWC as joint determinants of Rs in desert ecosystem.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-179

Soil respiration is a major component of global carbon cycle. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the environmental controls on soil respiration for evaluating potential response of ecosystems to climate change. In a temperate deciduous forest (located in Northern-Hungary) we added or removed aboveground and belowground litter to determine total soil respiration. We investigated the relationship between total soil CO2 efflux, soil moisture, and soil temperature. Soil CO2 efflux was measured at each plot using soda-lime method. Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q10) was monitored via measuring soil temperature on an hourly basis, while soil moisture was determined monthly. Soil respiration increased in control plots from the second year after implementing the treatment, but results showed fluctuations from one year to another. The effect of doubled litter was less significant than the effect of removal. Removed litter and root inputs caused substantial decrease in soil respiration. We found that temperature was more influential in the control of soil respiration than soil moisture. In plots with no litter Q10 varied in the largest interval. For treatment with doubled litter layer, temperature sensitivity of CO2 efflux did not change considerably. The effect of increasing soil temperature is more conspicuous to soil respiration in litter removal treatments since lack of litter causes greater irradiation. When exclusively leaf litter was considered, the effect of temperature on soil respiration was lower in treatments with added litter than with removed litter. Our results reveal that soil life is impacted by the absence of organic matter, rather than by an excess of organic matter. Results of CO2 emission from soils with different organic matter content can contribute to sustainable land use, considering the changed climatic factors caused by global climate change.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Urbanek ◽  
Stefan H. Doerr

Abstract. Soil CO2 emissions are strongly dependent on water distribution in soil pores, which in turn can be affected by soil water repellency (SWR; hydrophobicity). SWR restricts infiltration and movement of water, affecting soil hydrology as well as biological and chemical processes. Effects of SWR on soil carbon dynamics and specifically on soil respiration (CO2 efflux) have been studied in a few laboratory experiments but they remain poorly understood. Existing studies suggest that soil respiration is reduced in water repellent soils, but the responses of soil CO2 efflux to varying water distribution created by SWR are not yet known. Here we report on the first field-based study that tests whether soil water repellency indeed reduces soil respiration, based on in situ field measurements carried out over three consecutive years at a grassland and pine forest site under the humid temperate climate of the UK. CO2 efflux was reduced on occasions when soil exhibited consistently high SWR and low soil moisture following long dry spells. However, the highest respiration rates occurred not when SWR was absent, but when SWR, and thus soil moisture, was spatially patchy, a pattern observed for the majority of the measurement period. This somewhat surprising phenomenon can be explained by SWR-induced preferential flow, directing water and nutrients to microorganisms decomposing organic matter concentrated in hot spots near preferential flow paths. Water repellent zones provide air-filled pathways through the soil, which facilitate soil-atmosphere O2 and CO2 exchanges. This study demonstrates that SWR have contrasting effects on CO2 fluxes and, when spatially-variable, can enhance CO2 efflux. Spatial variability in SWR and associated soil moisture distribution needs to be considered when evaluating the effects of SWR on soil carbon dynamics under current and predicted future climatic conditions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Lellei-Kovács ◽  
Edit Kovács-Láng ◽  
Zoltán Botta-Dukát ◽  
Tibor Kalapos ◽  
Bridget Emmett ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 3899-3908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Wang ◽  
Tian Shan Zha ◽  
Xin Jia ◽  
Jin Nan Gong ◽  
Charles Bourque ◽  
...  

Abstract. Explanations for the occurrence of hysteresis (asynchronicity) between diel soil respiration (Rs) and soil temperature (Ts) have evoked both biological and physical mechanisms. The specifics of these explanations, however, tend to vary with the particular ecosystem or biome being investigated. So far, the relative degree of control of biological and physical processes on hysteresis is not clear for drylands. This study examined the seasonal variation in diel hysteresis and its biological control in a desert-shrub ecosystem in northwest (NW) China. The study was based on continuous measurements of Rs, air temperature (Ta), temperature at the soil surface and below (Tsurf and Ts), volumetric soil water content (SWC), and photosynthesis in a dominant desert shrub (i.e., Artemisia ordosica) over an entire year in 2013. Trends in diel Rs were observed to vary with SWC over the growing season (April to October). Diel variations in Rs were more closely associated with variations in Tsurf than with photosynthesis as SWC increased, leading to Rs being in phase with Tsurf, particularly when SWC > 0.08 m3 m−3 (ratio of SWC to soil porosity  =  0.26). However, as SWC decreased below 0.08 m3 m−3, diel variations in Rs were more closely related to variations in photosynthesis, leading to pronounced hysteresis between Rs and Tsurf. Incorporating photosynthesis into a Q10-function eliminated 84.2 % of the observed hysteresis, increasing the overall descriptive capability of the function. Our findings highlight a high degree of control by photosynthesis and SWC in regulating seasonal variation in diel hysteresis between Rs and temperature.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Yue ◽  
Xiaoqing Cui ◽  
Yanming Gong ◽  
Kaihui Li ◽  
Keith Goulding ◽  
...  

Abstract. Soil respiration (Rs) is the most important source of carbon dioxide emissions from soil to atmosphere. However, it is unclear what the interactive response of Rs would be to environmental changes such as elevated precipitation, nitrogen (N) deposition and warming, especially in unique temperate desert ecosystems. To investigate this an in situ field experiment was conducted in the Gurbantunggut Desert, northwest China, from September 2014 to October 2016. The results showed that precipitation and N deposition significantly increased Rs, but warming decreased Rs, which was mainly through its impact on the variation of soil moisture at 5 cm depth. In addition, the interactive response of Rs to combinations of the factors was much less than that of any single-factor, and the main interaction being a positive effect, except interaction from increased precipitation and high N deposition (60 kg N ha−1 yr−1). Although Rs was found to be a unimodal change pattern with the variation of soil mositure, soil temperature and soil NH4+-N content, and it was signicantly postively correlated to soil dissloved organic carbon (DOC) and pH, but from a structural equation model found that soil temperature was the most important controlling factor. Those results indicated that Rs was mainly interactively controlled by the soil multi-environmental factors and soil nutrients, and was very sensitive to elevated precipitation, N deposition and warming. But the interactions of multiple factors largely reduced between-year variation of Rs more than any single-factor, suggesting that the carbon cycle in temperate deserts could be profoundly influenced by positive carbon-climate feedbacks.


Soil Research ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 727 ◽  
Author(s):  
XiaoGuo Wang ◽  
Bo Zhu ◽  
MeiRong Gao ◽  
YanQiang Wang ◽  
XunHua Zheng

CO2 emissions from soils were measured under 3 land-use types at the adjacent plots of forest plantation, grassland, and cropland from January 2005 to December 2006. Mean soil CO2 efflux rates measured during the 2-year study varied from 59 to 527 mg CO2/m2.h in forest plantation, 37 to 498 mg CO2/m2.h in grassland, and 32 to 397 mg CO2/m2.h in cropland. Soil respiration in the 3 types of land-use showed a similar seasonal pattern in variation during both years, in which the single-peaked curve occurred in early summer and the minimum in winter. In particular, the date of maximum soil CO2 efflux rate in cropland occurred about 30 days earlier than in forest and grassland in both 2005 and 2006. The relationship of soil respiration rate (R) with soil temperature (T ) and soil moisture (W ) fitted well to the equation R = β0eβ1TW β2 (a, b, c were constants) than other univariate models which consider soil water content or soil temperature alone. Soil temperature and soil moisture together explained 69–92% of the temporal variation in soil respiration in the 3 land-use types. Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q10) was affected positively by soil moisture of top 0.1 m layer and negatively by soil temperature at 0.05 m depth. The relationship between Q10 values and soil temperature (T ) or soil moisture (W ) indicated that a 1°C increase in soil temperature at 0.05 m depth will reduce the Q10 value by 0.07, 0.05, and 0.06 in forest, grassland, and cropland, respectively. Similarly, a 1% decrease in soil moisture of the top 0.1 m layer will reduce the Q10 value by 0.10, 0.09, and 0.11 in forest, grassland, and cropland.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Wang ◽  
TianShan Zha ◽  
Xin Jia ◽  
Jinnan Gong ◽  
Charles Bourque ◽  
...  

Abstract. Causes for diel hysteresis between soil respiration (Rs) and temperature remain highly controversial. Explanations for the occurrence of hysteresis have involved both biological and physical mechanisms. The specifics of these explanations, however, tend to vary with the particular ecosystem or biome being studied. This study examined the seasonal variation in diel hysteresis and its controlling factors in a desert-shrub ecosystem in northwest (NW) China. The study was based on continuous measurements of Rs, air temperature (Ta), soil temperature at the surface and below (Tsurf and Ts), volumetric soil water content (SWC), and photosynthesis over a year 2013. Trends in diel Rs were observed to vary with SWC over the growing season. Diel variations in Rs were more closely associated with Tsurf than with photosynthesis as SWC increased, leading to Rs being in phase with Tsurf, particularly when SWC > 0.08 m3 m−3. However, as SWC decreased below 0.08 m3 m−3, diel variations in Rs were more closely related to variations in photosynthesis, leading to a pronounced diel hysteresis and asynchronicity between Rs and Tsurf. It was indicated that SWC regulates the relative control between photosynthesis and temperature on diel Rs by changing the relative contribution of autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration to total Rs, and thus, causing seasonal variation in diel hysteresis between Rs and temperature. Our findings highlight the importance of biologically-based mechanisms and the role of SWC in regulating diel hysteresis between Rs and temperature.


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