增温对高寒草甸生态系统碳氮循环耦合关系的影响

Experimental warming shifts coupling of carbon and nitrogen cycles in an alpine meadow

陆地生态系统碳吸收受土壤氮素可用性的调节。然而,全球变化背景下的不同生态系统组分的碳氮比及其所反映的碳氮循环耦合关系尚不十分清楚。本文运用数据同化的方法,将一个高寒草甸增温试验的14组数据同化到草地生态系统模型中,从而评估了增温如何影响陆地生态系统的碳氮循环耦合关系。研究结果表明,增温提高了土壤氮素的有效性,降低了土壤活性碳库的碳氮比,导致植物对土壤氮的吸收增加。但是由于植物叶片吸收的碳比吸收的氮增加更多,使得叶片中碳氮比增加,而根部的碳输入增加则低于氮的增加,导致根部的碳氮比减少。同时,增温降低了凋落物碳氮比,可能是在土壤高氮有效性的条件下,凋落物氮的固定得到增强;而且增温加速了凋落物的分解。同时增温还增加了慢速土壤有机质的碳氮比,使得该土壤碳库的碳固存潜力增大。由于大多数模型在不同的环境中通常使用相对固定的碳氮比,本研究所发现的气候变暖条件下碳氮比的差异变化可为模型参数化提供一个有效的参考,有利于模型对未来气候变化背景下生态系统碳氮耦合关系响应的预测。

Aims Terrestrial ecosystem carbon(C)uptake is remarkably regulated by nitrogen(N)availability in the soil.However,the coupling of C and N cycles,as reflected by C:N ratios in different components,has not been well explored in response to climate change.Methods Here,we applied a data assimilation approach to assimilate 14 datasets collected from a warming experiment in an alpine meadow in China into a grassland ecosystem model.We attempted to evaluate how experimental warming affects C and N coupling as indicated by constrained parameters under ambient and warming treatments separately.Important Findings The results showed that warming increased soil N availability with decreased C:N ratio in soil labile C pool,leading to an increase in N uptake by plants.Nonetheless,C input to leaf increased more than N,leading to an increase and a decrease in the C:N ratio in leaf and root,respectively.Litter C:N ratio was decreased due to the increased N immobilization under high soil N availability or warming-accelerated decomposition of litter mass.Warming also increased C:N ratio of slow soil organic matter pool,suggesting a greater soil C sequestration potential.As most models usually use a fixed C:N ratio across different environments,the divergent shifts of C:N ratios under climate warming detected in this study could provide a useful benchmark for model parameterization and benefit models to predict C-N coupled responses to future climate change.