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Short-term effects of thinning on soil respiration in a pine (Pinus tabulaeformis) plantation

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Abstract

Respiration was measured at daytime during the growing seasons (May–October) of 2011 and 2012 in a young Pinus tabulaeformis plantation with heavy, medium and light intensity thinning and unthinned control plots in Shanxi province in northern China. Soil temperature, moisture, fine root biomass, amounts of soil organic C and litterfall biomass were also measured. We found that immediately following thinning treatments, soil respiration increased by 8 %–21 % compared with the unthinned control plots during both growing seasons. Thinning significantly affected soil respiration and soil temperature with different thinning intensities, while there were no significant differences in soil moisture among the various treatments. During the growing seasons, the soil respiration rates were positively correlated with the soil moisture: the 19.4 %–54.0 % variation in soil respiration rates in the four thinning regimes are explained by the changes in soil moisture. Meanwhile, a positive correlation was found between soil temperature and soil respiration rates at all sites. The best fitting model with temperature and moisture explained 44.3 % of the variation in soil respiration in the high thinning treatment, 27.6 % in the light thinning treatment, 18.6 % in medium thinning and in the control sites during the measuring periods. Overall, soil respiration is better predicted by soil moisture, soil organic C, live fine root biomass and soil temperature when data are pooled for all thinning treatments over the two growing seasons. The best regression model explained 74.7 % of the total variation in soil respiration over the different thinning intensities for the two sampling periods.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the National Forestry Public Welfare Professional Scientific Research project (no. 201104008), the National Bureau of Forestry 948 project (no. 2010-4-15) and CFERN&GENE Award Funds on Ecological Paper. The authors thank all those who provided helpful suggestions and critical comments on this manuscript and anonymous reviewers. We also thank the Lingkong Mountain National Nature Reserve for their support our field works. The English language was revised by Pengjun Cheng and Dr. Gerrit Hazenberg.

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  1. Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Conservation, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Shuangqing Road 35, Haidian District, P.O. Box 372, 100083, Beijing, China

    Xiaoqin Cheng, Hairong Han, Fengfeng Kang, Ke Liu, Yali Song, Bin Zhou & Yong Li

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  1. Xiaoqin Cheng
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  2. Hairong Han
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  3. Fengfeng Kang
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  6. Bin Zhou
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  7. Yong Li
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Correspondence to Hairong Han.

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Cheng, X., Han, H., Kang, F. et al. Short-term effects of thinning on soil respiration in a pine (Pinus tabulaeformis) plantation. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 357–367 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-013-0852-0

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