How freezing and thawing processes affect black-soil aggregate stability in northeastern China

Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of freezing and thawing processes on wet aggregate stability （WAS） of black soil. Wet aggregate stability was determined by different aggregate size groups, different water contents, various freeze-thaw cycles, and various freezing temperatures. The results showed that, when at suitable water content, aggregate stability was enhanced, aggregate sta-bility will be disrupted when moisture content is too high or too low, especially higher water content. Temperature also had a significant ef-fect, but moisture content determined the suitable freezing temperatures for a given soil. Water-stable aggregate （WSA〉0.5）, the total aggre-gate content, and mean weight diameter decreasing with the freeze-thaw cycles increase, reached to 5 percent significance level. The reason for crumbing aggregates is the water and air conflict, thus raising the hypothesis that water content affects the aggregate stability in the process of freezing and thawing.

Temporal Variations in Soil CO_2 Efflux Under Diferent Land Use Types in the Black Soil Zone of Northeast China

The quantification of soil CO2 effiux is crucial for better understanding the interactions between driving variables and C losses from black soils in Northeast China and for assessing the function of black soil as a net source or sink of atmospheric CO2 depending upon land use. This study investigated responses of soil CO2 effiux variability to soil temperature interactions with different soil moisture levels under various land use types including grassland, bare land, and arable （maize, soybean, and wheat） land in the black soil zone of Northeast China. The soil CO2 effiuxes with and without live roots, defined as the total CO2 efftux （FtS） and the root-free CO2 ei^lux （FrfS）, respectively, were measured from April 2009 to May 2010 using a static closed chamber technique with gas chromatography. The seasonal soil CO2 fluxes tended to increase from the beginning of the measurements until they peaked in summer and then declined afterwards. The mean seasonal FtS ranged from 20.3=h7.8 to 58.1~21.3 mg CO2-C m-2 h-1 for all land use types and decreased in the order of soybean land ~ grassland 〉 maize land ~ wheat land ） bare land, while the corresponding values of FrfS were relatively lower, ranging from 20.3~7.8 to 42.3~21.3 mg CO2-C m-2 h-1. The annual cumulative FtS was in the range of 107-315 g CO2-C m-2 across all land uses types. The seasonM CO2 effiuxes were significantly （P 〈： 0.001） sensitive to soil temperature at 10 cm depth and were responsible for up to 62% of the CO2 effiux variability. Correspondingly, the temperature coefficient Q10 values varied from 2.1 to 4.5 for the seasonal FtS and 2.2 to 3.9 for the FrfS during the growing season. Soil temperature interacting with soil moisture accounted for a significant fraction of the CO2 flux variability for FtS （up to 61%） and FrfS （up to 67%） via a well-defined multiple regression model, indicating that temperature sensitivity of C02 flux can be mediated by water availability, especially under water stress.