Cargando…

Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Recent studies found that the largest uncertainties in the response of the terrestrial carbon cycle to climate change might come from changes in soil moisture under the elevation of temperature. Warming‐induced change in soil moisture and its level of influence on terrestrial ecosystems are mostly d...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Xue, Xian, Peng, Fei, You, Quangang, Xu, Manhou, Dong, Siyang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588646/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26445659
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1685
_version_ 1782392663228547072
author Xue, Xian
Peng, Fei
You, Quangang
Xu, Manhou
Dong, Siyang
author_facet Xue, Xian
Peng, Fei
You, Quangang
Xu, Manhou
Dong, Siyang
author_sort Xue, Xian
collection PubMed
description Recent studies found that the largest uncertainties in the response of the terrestrial carbon cycle to climate change might come from changes in soil moisture under the elevation of temperature. Warming‐induced change in soil moisture and its level of influence on terrestrial ecosystems are mostly determined by climate, soil, and vegetation type and their sensitivity to temperature and moisture. Here, we present the results from a warming experiment of an alpine ecosystem conducted in the permafrost region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau using infrared heaters. Our results show that 3 years of warming treatments significantly elevated soil temperature at 0–100 cm depth, decreased soil moisture at 10 cm depth, and increased soil moisture at 40–100 cm depth. In contrast to the findings of previous research, experimental warming did not significantly affect NH (4) (+)‐N, NO (3) (−)‐N, and heterotrophic respiration, but stimulated the growth of plants and significantly increased root biomass at 30–50 cm depth. This led to increased soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and liable carbon at 30–50 cm depth, and increased autotrophic respiration of plants. Analysis shows that experimental warming influenced deeper root production via redistributed soil moisture, which favors the accumulation of belowground carbon, but did not significantly affected the decomposition of soil organic carbon. Our findings suggest that future climate change studies need to take greater consideration of changes in the hydrological cycle and the local ecosystem characteristics. The results of our study will aid in understanding the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change and provide the regional case for global ecosystem models.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4588646
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45886462015-10-06 Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Xue, Xian Peng, Fei You, Quangang Xu, Manhou Dong, Siyang Ecol Evol Original Research Recent studies found that the largest uncertainties in the response of the terrestrial carbon cycle to climate change might come from changes in soil moisture under the elevation of temperature. Warming‐induced change in soil moisture and its level of influence on terrestrial ecosystems are mostly determined by climate, soil, and vegetation type and their sensitivity to temperature and moisture. Here, we present the results from a warming experiment of an alpine ecosystem conducted in the permafrost region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau using infrared heaters. Our results show that 3 years of warming treatments significantly elevated soil temperature at 0–100 cm depth, decreased soil moisture at 10 cm depth, and increased soil moisture at 40–100 cm depth. In contrast to the findings of previous research, experimental warming did not significantly affect NH (4) (+)‐N, NO (3) (−)‐N, and heterotrophic respiration, but stimulated the growth of plants and significantly increased root biomass at 30–50 cm depth. This led to increased soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and liable carbon at 30–50 cm depth, and increased autotrophic respiration of plants. Analysis shows that experimental warming influenced deeper root production via redistributed soil moisture, which favors the accumulation of belowground carbon, but did not significantly affected the decomposition of soil organic carbon. Our findings suggest that future climate change studies need to take greater consideration of changes in the hydrological cycle and the local ecosystem characteristics. The results of our study will aid in understanding the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change and provide the regional case for global ecosystem models. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2015-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4588646/ /pubmed/26445659 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1685 Text en © 2015 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Xue, Xian
Peng, Fei
You, Quangang
Xu, Manhou
Dong, Siyang
Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
title Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
title_full Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
title_fullStr Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
title_full_unstemmed Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
title_short Belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
title_sort belowground carbon responses to experimental warming regulated by soil moisture change in an alpine ecosystem of the qinghai–tibet plateau
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588646/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26445659
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1685
work_keys_str_mv AT xuexian belowgroundcarbonresponsestoexperimentalwarmingregulatedbysoilmoisturechangeinanalpineecosystemoftheqinghaitibetplateau
AT pengfei belowgroundcarbonresponsestoexperimentalwarmingregulatedbysoilmoisturechangeinanalpineecosystemoftheqinghaitibetplateau
AT youquangang belowgroundcarbonresponsestoexperimentalwarmingregulatedbysoilmoisturechangeinanalpineecosystemoftheqinghaitibetplateau
AT xumanhou belowgroundcarbonresponsestoexperimentalwarmingregulatedbysoilmoisturechangeinanalpineecosystemoftheqinghaitibetplateau
AT dongsiyang belowgroundcarbonresponsestoexperimentalwarmingregulatedbysoilmoisturechangeinanalpineecosystemoftheqinghaitibetplateau