Non-growing season soil CO_2 efflux and its changes in an alpine meadow ecosystem of the Qilian Mountains,Northwest China

Most soil respiration measurements are conducted during the growing season.In tundra and boreal forest ecosystems,cumulative,non-growing season soil CO2 fluxes are reported to be a significant component of these systems＇ annual carbon budgets.However,little information exists on soil CO2 efflux during the non-growing season from alpine ecosystems.Therefore,comparing measurements of soil respiration taken annually versus during the growing season will improve the accuracy of estimating ecosystem carbon budgets,as well as predicting the response of soil CO2 efflux to climate changes.In this study,we measured soil CO2 efflux and its spatial and temporal changes for different altitudes during the non-growing season in an alpine meadow located in the Qilian Mountains,Northwest China.Field experiments on the soil CO2 efflux of alpine meadow from the Qilian Mountains were conducted along an elevation gradient from October 2010 to April 2011.We measured the soil CO2 efflux,and analyzed the effects of soil water content and soil temperature on this measure.The results show that soil CO2 efflux gradually decreased along the elevation gradient during the non-growing season.The daily variation of soil CO2 efflux appeared as a single-peak curve.The soil CO2 efflux was low at night,with the lowest value occurring between 02：00-06：00.Then,values started to rise rapidly between 07：00-08：30,and then descend again between 16：00-18：30.The peak soil CO2 efflux appeared from 11：00 to 16：00.The soil CO2 efflux values gradually decreased from October to February of the next year and started to increase in March.Non-growing season Q10 （the multiplier to the respiration rate for a 10℃ increase in temperature） was increased with raising altitude and average Q10 of the Qilian Mountains was generally higher than the average growing season Q10 of the Heihe River Basin.Seasonally,non-growing season soil CO2 efflux was relatively high in October and early spring and low in the winter.The soil CO2 efflux was positively correlated with soil temperature and soil water content.Our results indicate that in alpine ecosystems,soil CO2 efflux continues throughout the non-growing season,and soil respiration is an important component of annual soil CO2 efflux.

Characterizing CO_2 fluxes for growing and non-growing seasons in a shrub ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

To assess carbon budget for shrub ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, CO2flux was measured with an open-path eddy covariance system for an alpine shrub ecosystem during growing and non-growing seasons. CO2 flux dynamics was distinct between the two seasons. During the growing season from May to September, the ecosystem exhibited net CO2uptake from 08:00 to 19:00 (Beijing Standard Time), but net CO2 emission from 19:00 to 08:00.Maximum CO2 uptake appeared around 12:00 with values of 0.71, 1.19, 1.46 and 0.67 g CO2m-2 h-1 for June, July, August and September, respectively. Diurnal fluctuation of CO2 flux showed higher correlation with photosynthetic photon flux density than temperature. The maximum net CO2 influx occurred in August with a value of 247 g CO2 m-2. The total CO2 uptake by the ecosystem was up to 583 g CO2 m-2 for the growing season. During the non-growing season from January to April and from October to December, CO2 flux showed small fluctuation with the largest net CO2 efflux of 0.30 g CO2 m-2 h-1 in April. The diurnal CO2 flux was close to zero during most time of the day, but showed a small net CO2 efflux from 11:00 to 18:00. Diurnal CO2 flux, is significantly correlated to diurnal temperature in the non-growing season. The maximum monthly net CO2 efflux appeared in April, with a value of 105 g CO2 m-2. The total net CO2 efflux for the whole non-growing season was 356 g CO2 m-2.

Effects of warming on soil respiration during the non-growing seasons in a semiarid temperate steppe

Aims The response pattern of terrestrial soil respiration to warming during non-growing seasons is a poorly understood phenomenon,though many believe that these warming effects are potentially significant.This study was conducted in a semiarid temperate steppe to examine the effects of warming during the non-growing seasons on soil respiration and the underlying mechanisms associated therewith.Methods This experiment was conducted in a semiarid temperate grassland and included 10 paired control and experimental plots.Experimental warming was achieved with open top chambers(OTCs)in October 2014.Soil respiration,soil temperature and soil moisture were measured several times monthly from November 2014 to April 2015 and from November 2015 to April 2016.Microbial biomass carbon(MBC),microbial biomass nitrogen(MBN)and available nitrogen content of soil were measured from 0 to 20 cm soil depth.Repeated measurement ANOVAs and paired-sample t tests were conducted to document the effect of warming,and the interactions between warming and time on the above variables.Simple regressions were employed to detect the underlying causality for the observed effects.Important Findings Soil respiration rate was 0.24μmol m^(−2) s^(−1) in the control plots during the non-growing seasons,which was roughly 14.4%of total soil carbon flux observed during growing seasons.Across the two non-growing seasons,warming treatment significantly increased soil temperature and soil respiration by 1.48℃(P<0.001)and 42.1%(P<0.01),respectively,when compared with control plots.Warming slightly,but did not significantly decrease soil moisture by 0.66%in the non-growing seasons from 2015 to 2016.In the non-growing seasons 2015–16,experimental warming significantly elevated MBC and MBN by 19.72%and 20.99%(both P<0.05),respectively.In addition,soil respiration responses to warming were regulated by changes in soil temperate,MBC and MBN.These findings indicate that changes in non-growing season soil respiration impact other components in the carbon cycle.Additionally,these findings facilitate projections regarding climate change–terrestrial carbon cycling.

Nitrous oxide emissions following seasonal freeze-thaw events from arable soils in Northeast China

Seasonal soil freeze-thaw events may enhance soil nitrogen transformation and thus stimulate nitrous oxide （N2O） emissions in cold regions. However, the mechanisms of soil N2O emission during the freeze-thaw cycling in the field remain unclear. We evaluated N2O emissions and soil biotic and abiotic factors in maize and paddy fields over 20 months in Northeast China, and the structural equation model （SEM） was used to determine which factors affected N2O production during non-growing season. Our results verified that the seasonal freeze-thaw cycles mitigated the available soil nitrogen and carbon limitation during spring thawing period, but simultaneously increased the gaseous N2O-N losses at the annual time scale under field condition. The N2O-N cumulative losses during the non-growing season amounted to 0.71 and 0.55 kg N ha 1 for the paddy and maize fields, respectively, and contributed to 66 and 18% of the annual total. The highest emission rates （199.2- 257.4 μg m-2 h-1） were observed during soil thawing for both fields, but we did not observe an emission peak during soil freezing in early winter. Although the pulses of N2O emission in spring were short-lived （18 d）, it resulted in approximately 80% of the non-growing season N2O-N loss. The N2O burst during the spring thawing was triggered by the combined impact of high soil moisture, flush available nitrogen and carbon, and rapid recovery of microbial biomass. SEM analysis indicated that the soil moisture, available substrates including NH4＋ and dissolved organic carbon （DOC）, and microbial biomass nitrogen （MBN） explained 32, 36, 16 and 51% of the N2O flux variation, respectively, during the non-growing season. Our results suggested that N2O emission during the spring thawing make a vital contribution of the annual nitrogen budget, and the vast seasonally frozen and snow-covered croplands will have high potential to exert a positive feedback on climate change considering the sensitive response of nitrogen biogeochemical cycling to the freeze-thaw disturbance.

Non-cropping period accounting for over a half of annual nitric oxide releases from cultivated calcareous-soil alpine ecosystems with marginally low emission factors

Nitric oxide(NO)emissions from alpine ecosystems conventionally being long-term cultivated with feed crops are not well quantified.The authors attempted to address this knowledge gap by performing a year-round experimental campaign in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.Fertilized(F)and unfertilized(UF)treatments were established within a flat calcareous-soil site for the long-term cultivation of feed oats.NO fluxes and five soil variables were simultaneously measured.A single plow tillage accounted for approximately 54%–73%of the NO releases during the cropping period(CP);and the non-cropping period(NCP)contributed to 51%–58%of the annual emissions.The direct NO emissions factor(EFd)was 0.021%±0.021%.Significantly lower Q10 values(p<0.01)occurred in the F treatment during the CP(approximately 3.6)compared to those during the other period or in the other treatment(approximately 4.9?5.1),indicating a fertilizer-induced reduction in the temperature sensitivity.The selected soil variables jointly accounted for up to 72%(p<0.01)of the variance for all the fluxes across both treatments.This finding suggests that temporally and/or spatially distributed fluxes from alpine calcareous-soil ecosystems for feed crop production may be easily predicted if data on these soil variables are available.Further studies are needed to test the hypothesis that the EFd is larger in alpine feed-oat fields than those in this study if the soil moisture content is higher during the period following the basal application of ammoniumor urea-based fertilizer.

Characterizing nitric oxide emissions from two typical alpine ecosystems

portion of alpine meadows has been and will continue to be cultivated due to the concurrent increasing demands for animal-and crop-oriented foods and global warming.However, it remains unclear how these long-term changes in land use will affect nitric oxide(NO) emission. At a field site with a calcareous soil on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau,the authors measured the year-round NO fluxes and related variables in a typically wintergrazed natural alpine meadow(NAM) and its adjacent forage oat field(FOF). The results showed that long-term plow tillage, fertilization and growing forage oats significantly yielded ca. 2.7 times more(p < 0.01) NO emissions from the FOF than the NAM(conservatively 208 vs. 56 g N/(ha·year) on average). The spring freeze–thaw period and non-growing season accounted for 17%-35% of the annual emissions, respectively. The Q10 of surface soil temperature(Ts) was 8.9 in the NAM(vs. 3.8 in the FOF), indicating increases of 24%–93% in NO emissions per 1–3 °C increase. However, the warming-induced increases could be smaller than those due to land use change and management practices. The Tsand concentrations of ammonium, nitrate and water-extractable organic carbon jointly explained 69% of the variance in daily NO fluxes from both fields during the annual period(p < 0.001). This result indicates that temporally and/or spatially distributed NO fluxes from landscapes with calcareous soils across native alpine meadows and/or fields cultivated with forage oats can be predicted by simultaneous observations of these four soil variables.