scholarly journals Soil carbon release responses to long-term versus short-term climatic warming in an arid ecosystem

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongying Yu ◽  
Zhenzhu Xu ◽  
Guangsheng Zhou ◽  
Yao Shou

Abstract. Climate change severely impacts grassland carbon cycling, especially in arid ecosystems, such as desert steppes. However, little is known about the responses of soil respiration (Rs) to different warming magnitudes and watering pulses in situ in desert steppes. To examine their effects on Rs, we conducted long-term moderate warming, short-term acute warming and watering field experiments in a desert grassland of Northern China. While experimental warming significantly reduced Rs by 32.5 % and 40.8 % under long-term and moderate and short-term and acute warming regimes, respectively, watering pulses stimulated it substantially. Warming did not change the exponential relationship between Rs and soil temperature, whereas the relationship of Rs with soil water content (SWC) was well fitted to the Gompertz function. The soil features were not significantly affected by either long-term or short-term warming regimes, respectively; however, soil organic carbon content tended to decrease with long-term climatic warming. This indicates that soil carbon release responses strongly depend on the duration and magnitude of climatic warming, which may be driven by SWC and soil temperature. The results of this study highlight the great dependence of soil carbon emission on warming regimes of different durations and the important role of precipitation pulse during growing season in assessing the terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance and cycle.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 781-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongying Yu ◽  
Zhenzhu Xu ◽  
Guangsheng Zhou ◽  
Yaohui Shi

Abstract. Climate change severely impacts the grassland carbon cycling by altering rates of litter decomposition and soil respiration (Rs), especially in arid areas. However, little is known about the Rs responses to different warming magnitudes and watering pulses in situ in desert steppes. To examine their effects on Rs, we conducted long-term moderate warming (4 years, ∼3 ∘C), short-term acute warming (1 year, ∼4 ∘C) and watering field experiments in a desert grassland of northern China. While experimental warming significantly reduced average Rs by 32.5 % and 40.8 % under long-term moderate and short-term acute warming regimes, respectively, watering pulses (fully irrigating the soil to field capacity) stimulated it substantially. This indicates that climatic warming constrains soil carbon release, which is controlled mainly by decreased soil moisture, consequently influencing soil carbon dynamics. Warming did not change the exponential relationship between Rs and soil temperature, whereas the relationship between Rs and soil moisture was better fitted to a sigmoid function. The belowground biomass, soil nutrition, and microbial biomass were not significantly affected by either long-term or short-term warming regimes, respectively. The results of this study highlight the great dependence of soil carbon emission on warming regimes of different durations and the important role of precipitation pulses during the growing season in assessing the terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance and cycle.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 440-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Girard ◽  
Marcel Lichters ◽  
Marko Sarstedt ◽  
Dipayan Biswas

Ambient scents are being increasingly used in different service environments. While there is emerging research on the effects of scents, almost nothing is known about the long-term effects of consumers’ repeated exposure to ambient scents in a service environment as prior studies on ambient scents have been lab or field studies examining short-term effects of scent exposure only. Addressing this limitation, we examine the short- and long-term effects of ambient scents. Specifically, we present a conceptual framework for the short- and long-term effects of nonconsciously processed ambient scent in olfactory-rich servicescapes. We empirically test this framework with the help of two large-scale field experiments, conducted in collaboration with a major German railway company, in which consumers were exposed to a pleasant, nonconsciously processed scent. The first experiment demonstrates ambient scent’s positive short-term effects on consumers’ service perceptions. The second experiment—a longitudinal study conducted over a 4-month period—examines scent’s long-term effects on consumers’ reactions and demonstrates that the effects persist even when the scent has been removed from the servicescape.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra L. Lawrence ◽  
David H Wise

Background. Theory predicts strong bottom-up control in detritus-based food webs, yet field experiments with detritus-based terrestrial systems have uncovered contradictory evidence regarding the strength and pervasiveness of bottom-up control processes. Two factors likely leading to contradictory results are experiment duration, which influences exposure to temporal variation in abiotic factors such as rainfall and affects the likelihood of detecting approach to a new equilibrium; and openness of the experimental units to immigration and migration. To investigate the contribution of these two factors, we conducted a long-term experiment with open and fenced plots in the forest that was the site of an earlier, short-term experiment (3.5 months) with open plots (Chen & Wise 1999) that produced evidence of strong bottom-up control for 14 taxonomic groupings of primary consumers of litter and fungi (microbi-detritivores) and their predators. Methods. We added artificial high-quality detritus to ten 2 x 2-m forest-floor plots at bi-weekly intervals from April through September in three consecutive years (Supplemented treatment). Ten comparable Ambient plots were controls. Half of the Supplemented and Ambient plots were enclosed by metal fencing. Results. Arthropod community structure (based upon 18 response variables) diverged over time between Supplemented and Ambient treatments, with no effect of Fencing on the multivariate response pattern. Fencing possibly influenced only ca. 20% of the subsequent univariate analyses. Multi- and univariate analyses revealed bottom-up control by fall of Year 1 of some, but not all, microbi-detritivores and predators. During the following two years the pattern of responses became more complex than that observed by Chen & Wise (1999). Some taxa showed consistent bottom-up control whereas many did not. Variation across years could not be explained completely by differences in rainfall because some taxa exhibited negative, not positive, responses to detrital supplementation. Discussion. Our 3-yr experiment did not confirm the conclusion of strong, pervasive bottom-up control of microbi-detritivores and predators reported by Chen and Wise (1999). Our longer-term experiment revealed a more complex pattern of responses, a pattern much closer to the range of outcomes reported in the literature for many short-term experiments. Much of the variation in responses across studies likely reflects variation in factors such as rainfall and the quality of added detritus. Nevertheless, it is also possible that long-term resource enhancement can drive a community towards a new equilibrium state that differs from what would have been predicted from the initial short-term responses exhibited by primary and secondary consumers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Mohrlok ◽  
Victoria Martin ◽  
Niel Verbrigghe ◽  
Lucia Fuchslueger ◽  
Christopher Poeplau ◽  
...  

<p>Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and total land plant biomass combined. Soil organic matter (SOM) can be classified into different physical pools characterized by their degree of protection and turnover rates. Usually, these pools are isolated by dividing soils in different water-stable aggregate size classes and, inside these classes, SOM fractions with differing densities and properties: Stable mineral-associated organic matter (MOM) and labile particulate organic matter (POM). Increasing temperatures are known to initially enhance microbial decomposition rates, releasing C from soils which could further accelerate climate change. The magnitude of this feedback depends on which C pool is affected the most by increased decomposition. Since MOM, thought to be the best protected carbon pool, holds most of the soil C, losses from this pool would potentially have the biggest impact on global climate. Experimental results are inconclusive so far, as most studies are based on short-term field warming (years rather than decades), leaving the ecosystem response to decades to century of warming uncertain.</p><p>We made use of a geothermal warming platform in Iceland (ForHot; https://forhot.is/) to compare the effect of short-term (STW, 5-8 years) and long-term (LTW, more than 50 years) warming on soil organic carbon and nitrogen (SOC, SON) and its carbon and nitrogen isotope composition (δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N) in soil aggregates of different sizes in a subarctic grassland. OM fractions were isolated via density fractionation and ultrasonication both in macro- and microaggregates: Inter-aggregate free POM (fPOM), POM occluded within aggregates (iPOM) and MOM.</p><p>MOM, containing most of the SOC and SON, showed a similar response to warming for both macro- and microaggregates. Compared to LTW plots, STW plots overall had higher C and N stocks. But warming reduced the carbon content more strongly in STW plot than in LTW plots. δ<sup>13</sup>C of MOM soil increased with temperature on the STW sites, indicating higher overall SOM turnover rates at higher temperatures, in line with the higher SOC losses. For LTW, δ<sup>13</sup>C decreased with warming except for the most extreme treatment (+16°C). Warming duration had no impact on iPOM-C. fPOM-C decreased in STW sites with increasing temperature, while it increased on the LTW sites.</p><p>Overall our results demonstrate warming-induced C losses from the MOM-C-pool, thought to be most stable soil carbon pool. Thus, warming stimulated microbes to decompose both labile fPOM and more stable MOM. After decades of warming, C losses are less pronounced compared to the short-term warmed plots, pointing to a replenishment of the carbon pools at higher temperatures in the long-term. This might be explained by adaptations of the primary productivity and/or substrate-limitation of microbial growth.</p><p> </p>


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