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Biophysical regulation of carbon fluxes over an alpine meadow ecosystem in the eastern Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

The eddy covariance method was used to measure net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) between atmosphere and an alpine meadow ecosystem in the eastern Tibetan Plateau of China in 2010. Our results show that photosynthesis was reduced under low air temperature (T a), high vapor pressure deficit (VPD), and medium soil water content (SWC) conditions, when compared to that under other T a (i.e., medium and high), VPD (i.e., low and medium), and SWC (i.e., low and high) conditions. The apparent temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration (Q 10) declined with progressing phenology during the growing season and decreased with an increase of soil temperature (T s) during the non-growing season. Increased ecosystem respiration (R eco) was measured during spring soil thawing. By the path analysis, T a, T s, and VPD were the main control factors of CO2 exchange at 30-min scale in this alpine meadow. Integrated NEE, gross primary production (GPP), and R eco over the measured year were −156.4, 1164.3, and 1007.9 g C m−2, respectively. Zoige alpine meadow was a medium carbon sink based on published data for grassland ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by National Key Basic Research Program of China (grant 2013CB956604), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 41405016, 41130961, 41205006, 41275014), and Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars of CAREERI (51Y351181). We would like to acknowledge Zoige Plateau Wetland Ecosystem Research Station for providing data support for this study. We also thank Dr. Liukang Xu for his helpful comments, which helpfully improve the quality of this manuscript. We also gratefully acknowledge the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Land Surface and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Shaoying Wang, Yu Zhang, Shihua Lü, Peixi Su, Lunyu Shang & Zhaoguo Li

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  1. Shaoying Wang
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Wang, S., Zhang, Y., Lü, S. et al. Biophysical regulation of carbon fluxes over an alpine meadow ecosystem in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Int J Biometeorol 60, 801–812 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-015-1074-y

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