Dataset Information

Quantifying components of soil respiration and their response to abiotic factors in two typical subtropical forest stands, southwest China.

ABSTRACT: Separating the components of soil respiration and understanding the roles of abiotic factors at a temporal scale among different forest types are critical issues in forest ecosystem carbon cycling. This study quantified the proportions of autotrophic (RA) and heterotrophic (RH) in total soil (RT) respiration using trenching and litter removal. Field studies were conducted in two typical subtropical forest stands (broadleaf and needle leaf mixed forest; bamboo forest) at Jinyun Mountain, near the Three Georges Reservoir in southwest China, during the growing season (Apr.-Sep.) from 2010 to 2012. The effects of air temperature (AT), soil temperature (ST) and soil moisture (SM) at 6 cm depth, solar radiation (SR), pH on components of soil respiration were analyzed. Results show that: 1) SR, AT, and ST exhibited a similar temporal trend. The observed abiotic factors showed slight interannual variability for the two forest stands. 2) The contributions of RH and RA to RT for broadleaf and needle leaf mixed forest were 73.25% and 26.75%, respectively, while those for bamboo forest were 89.02% and 10.98%, respectively; soil respiration peaked from June to July. In both stands, CO2 released from the decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM), the strongest contributor to RT, accounted for over 63% of RH. 3) AT and ST were significantly positively correlated with RT and its components (p<0.05), and were major factors affecting soil respiration. 4) Components of soil respiration were significantly different between two forest stands (p<0.05), indicating that vegetation types played a role in soil respiration and its components.

SUBMITTER: Yu L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4332482 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quantifying components of soil respiration and their response to abiotic factors in two typical subtropical forest stands, southwest China.

Yu Lei L Wang Yujie Y Wang Yunqi Y Sun Suqi S Liu Liziyuan L

PloS one 20150213 2

Separating the components of soil respiration and understanding the roles of abiotic factors at a temporal scale among different forest types are critical issues in forest ecosystem carbon cycling. This study quantified the proportions of autotrophic (RA) and heterotrophic (RH) in total soil (RT) respiration using trenching and litter removal. Field studies were conducted in two typical subtropical forest stands (broadleaf and needle leaf mixed forest; bamboo forest) at Jinyun Mountain, near the ...[more]

PMID: 25680112

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Project description:Effects of tree species diversity on decomposition can operate via a multitude of mechanism, including alterations of microclimate by the forest canopy. Studying such effects in natural settings is complicated by the fact that topography also affects microclimate and thus decomposition, so that effects of diversity are more difficult to isolate. Here, we quantified decomposition rates of standard litter in young subtropical forest stands, separating effects of canopy tree species richness and topography, and quantifying their direct and micro-climate-mediated components. Our litterbag study was carried out at two experimental sites of a biodiversity-ecosystem functioning field experiment in south-east China (BEF-China). The field sites display strong topographical heterogeneity and were planted with tree communities ranging from monocultures to mixtures of 24 native subtropical tree species. Litter bags filled with senescent leaves of three native tree species were placed from Nov. 2011 to Oct. 2012 on 134 plots along the tree species diversity gradient. Topographic features were measured for all and microclimate in a subset of plots. Stand species richness, topography and microclimate explained important fractions of the variations in litter decomposition rates, with diversity and topographic effects in part mediated by microclimatic changes. Tree stands were 2-3 years old, but nevertheless tree species diversity explained more variation (54.3%) in decomposition than topography (7.7%). Tree species richness slowed litter decomposition, an effect that slightly depended on litter species identity. A large part of the variance in decomposition was explained by tree species composition, with the presence of three tree species playing a significant role. Microclimate explained 31.4% of the variance in decomposition, and was related to lower soil moisture. Within this microclimate effect, species diversity (without composition) explained 8.9% and topography 34.4% of variance. Topography mainly affected diurnal temperature amplitudes by varying incident solar radiation.

Project description:Background and aimsSoil respiration is the second-largest terrestrial carbon (C) flux, and soil temperature and soil moisture are the main drivers of temporal variation in soil respiration and its components. Here, we quantified the contribution of soil temperature, soil moisture, and their intersection on the variation in soil respiration and its components of the evergreen broad-leaved forests (EBF), mixed evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forests (MF), deciduous broad-leaved forests (DBF), and subalpine coniferous forests (CF) along an elevation gradient.MethodsWe measured soil respiration of four types of forests along the elevation gradient in Shennongjia, Hubei China based on the trenching experiments. We parameterized the relationships between soil respiration and soil temperature, soil moisture, and quantified the intersection of temperature and moisture on soil respiration and its components.ResultsTotal soil respiration (R S), heterotrophic respiration (R H), and autotrophic respiration (R A) were significantly correlated with soil temperature in all four forests. The Q 10 value of soil respiration significantly differed among the four types of forest, and the Q 10 was 3.06 for EBF, 3.75 for MF, 4.05 for DBF, and 4.49 for CF, respectively. The soil temperature explained 62%-81% of the variation in respiration, while soil temperature and soil moisture together explained 91%-97% of soil respiration variation for the four types of forests. The variation from the intersection of soil temperature and moisture were 12.1%-25.0% in RS, 1.0%-7.0% in R H, and 17.1%-19.6% in R A, respectively.ConclusionsOur results show that the temperature sensitivity (Q 10) of soil respiration increased with elevation. The intersection between soil temperature and soil moisture had strong effects on soil respiration, especially in R H. We demonstrated that the intersection effects between soil temperature and soil moisture on soil respiration were essential to understand the response of soil respiration and its components to climate change.

Dataset Information

Quantifying components of soil respiration and their response to abiotic factors in two typical subtropical forest stands, southwest China.

Publications

Quantifying components of soil respiration and their response to abiotic factors in two typical subtropical forest stands, southwest China.

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