Dynamics of Soil Respiration in Alpine Wetland Meadows Exposed to Different Levels of Degradation in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China

The effects of degradation of alpine wetland meadow on soil respiration (Rs) and the sensitivity of Rs to temperature (Q(10)) were measured in the Napa Lake region of Shangri-La on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Rs was measured for 24 h during each of three different stages of the growing season on four different degraded levels. The results showed: (1) peak Rs occurred at around 5:00 p.m., regardless of the degree of degradation and growing season stage, with the maximum Rs reaching 10.05 μmol·m(−2)·s(−1) in non-degraded meadows rather than other meadows; (2) the daily mean Rs value was 7.14–7.86 μmol·m(−2)·s(−1) during the mid growing season in non-degraded meadows, and declined by 48.4–62.6% when degradation increased to the severely degraded level; (3) Q(10) ranged from 7.1–11.3 in non-degraded meadows during the mid growing season, 5.5–8.0 and 6.2–8.2 during the early and late growing seasons, respectively, and show a decline of about 50% from the non-degraded meadows to severely degraded meadows; (4) Rs was correlated significantly with soil temperature at a depth of 0–5 cm (p < 0.05) on the diurnal scale, but not at the seasonal scale; (5) significant correlations were found between Rs and soil organic carbon (SOC), between biomass and SOC, and between Q(10) and Rs (p < 0.05), which indicates that biomass and SOC potentially impact Q(10). The results suggest that vegetation degradation impact both Rs and Q(10) significantly. Also, we speculated that Q(10) of alpine wetland meadow is probable greater at the boundary region than inner region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and shoule be a more sensitive indicator in the studying of climate change in this zone.