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Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Soils of mountain regions and their associated plant communities are highly diverse over short spatial scales due to the heterogeneity of geological substrates and highly dynamic geomorphic processes. The consequences of this heterogeneity for biogeochemical transfers, however,...

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Autores principales: Grand, Stephanie, Rubin, Aurélie, Verrecchia, Eric P., Vittoz, Pascal
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5042455/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27685955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163968
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author Grand, Stephanie
Rubin, Aurélie
Verrecchia, Eric P.
Vittoz, Pascal
author_facet Grand, Stephanie
Rubin, Aurélie
Verrecchia, Eric P.
Vittoz, Pascal
author_sort Grand, Stephanie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Soils of mountain regions and their associated plant communities are highly diverse over short spatial scales due to the heterogeneity of geological substrates and highly dynamic geomorphic processes. The consequences of this heterogeneity for biogeochemical transfers, however, remain poorly documented. The objective of this study was to quantify the variability of soil-surface carbon dioxide efflux, known as soil respiration (Rs), across soil and vegetation types in an Alpine valley. To this aim, we measured Rs rates during the peak and late growing season (July-October) in 48 plots located in pastoral areas of a small valley of the Swiss Alps. FINDINGS: Four herbaceous vegetation types were identified, three corresponding to different stages of primary succession (Petasition paradoxi in pioneer conditions, Seslerion in more advanced stages and Poion alpinae replacing the climactic forests), as well as one (Rumicion alpinae) corresponding to eutrophic grasslands in intensively grazed areas. Soils were developed on calcareous alluvial and colluvial fan deposits and were classified into six types including three Fluvisols grades and three Cambisols grades. Plant and soil types had a high level of co-occurrence. The strongest predictor of Rs was soil temperature, yet we detected additional explanatory power of sampling month, showing that temporal variation was not entirely reducible to variations in temperature. Vegetation and soil types were also major determinants of Rs. During the warmest month (August), Rs rates varied by over a factor three between soil and vegetation types, ranging from 2.5 μmol m(-2) s(-1) in pioneer environments (Petasition on Very Young Fluvisols) to 8.5 μmol m(-2) s(-1) in differentiated soils supporting nitrophilous species (Rumicion on Calcaric Cambisols). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study provides quantitative estimates of spatial and temporal variability in Rs in the mountain environment, and demonstrates that estimations of soil carbon efflux at the watershed scale in complex geomorphic terrain have to account for soil and vegetation heterogeneity.
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spelling pubmed-50424552016-10-27 Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley Grand, Stephanie Rubin, Aurélie Verrecchia, Eric P. Vittoz, Pascal PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Soils of mountain regions and their associated plant communities are highly diverse over short spatial scales due to the heterogeneity of geological substrates and highly dynamic geomorphic processes. The consequences of this heterogeneity for biogeochemical transfers, however, remain poorly documented. The objective of this study was to quantify the variability of soil-surface carbon dioxide efflux, known as soil respiration (Rs), across soil and vegetation types in an Alpine valley. To this aim, we measured Rs rates during the peak and late growing season (July-October) in 48 plots located in pastoral areas of a small valley of the Swiss Alps. FINDINGS: Four herbaceous vegetation types were identified, three corresponding to different stages of primary succession (Petasition paradoxi in pioneer conditions, Seslerion in more advanced stages and Poion alpinae replacing the climactic forests), as well as one (Rumicion alpinae) corresponding to eutrophic grasslands in intensively grazed areas. Soils were developed on calcareous alluvial and colluvial fan deposits and were classified into six types including three Fluvisols grades and three Cambisols grades. Plant and soil types had a high level of co-occurrence. The strongest predictor of Rs was soil temperature, yet we detected additional explanatory power of sampling month, showing that temporal variation was not entirely reducible to variations in temperature. Vegetation and soil types were also major determinants of Rs. During the warmest month (August), Rs rates varied by over a factor three between soil and vegetation types, ranging from 2.5 μmol m(-2) s(-1) in pioneer environments (Petasition on Very Young Fluvisols) to 8.5 μmol m(-2) s(-1) in differentiated soils supporting nitrophilous species (Rumicion on Calcaric Cambisols). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study provides quantitative estimates of spatial and temporal variability in Rs in the mountain environment, and demonstrates that estimations of soil carbon efflux at the watershed scale in complex geomorphic terrain have to account for soil and vegetation heterogeneity. Public Library of Science 2016-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5042455/ /pubmed/27685955 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163968 Text en © 2016 Grand et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Grand, Stephanie
Rubin, Aurélie
Verrecchia, Eric P.
Vittoz, Pascal
Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley
title Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley
title_full Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley
title_fullStr Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley
title_full_unstemmed Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley
title_short Variation in Soil Respiration across Soil and Vegetation Types in an Alpine Valley
title_sort variation in soil respiration across soil and vegetation types in an alpine valley
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5042455/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27685955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163968
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