Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Low soil moisture during hot periods drives apparent negative temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in a dryland ecosystem: a multi-model comparison

  • Published:
Biogeochemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Arid and semiarid ecosystems (drylands) may dominate the trajectory of biosphere-to-atmosphere carbon (C) exchange, and understanding dryland CO2 efflux is important for C cycling at the global-scale. However, unknowns remain regarding how temperature and moisture interact to regulate dryland soil respiration (R s ), while ‘islands of fertility’ in drylands create spatially heterogeneous R s . At a site in southeastern Utah, USA we added or removed litter (0–650 % of control) in plots associated with either shrubs or biological soil crust-dominated interspaces between vascular plants. We measured R s , soil temperature (Ts), and water content (θ) repeatedly from October 2013 to November 2014. R s was highest following rain in late summer at Ts ~30 °C, and lowest mid-summer at Ts > 40 °C, resulting in apparent negative temperature sensitivity of R s at high temperatures, and positive temperature sensitivity at low-moderate temperatures. We used Bayesian statistical methods to compare models capturing a range of hypothesized relationships between Ts, θ, and R s . The best model indicates that apparent negative temperature sensitivity of R s at high Ts reflects the control of water content, not high temperatures. Modeled Q10 ranged from 2.7 to 1.4 between 5 and 45 °C. Litter addition had no effect on Q10 or reference respiration (R ref  = R s at 20 °C and optimum θ) beneath shrubs, and little effect on R ref in interspaces, yet R ref was 1.5 times higher beneath shrubs than in interspaces. Altogether, these results suggest reduced R s often observed at high Ts in drylands is dominated by the control of θ, and, on shorter-timescales, variable litter inputs exert minimal control over R s .

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adair EC, Parton WJ, Del Grosso SJ et al (2008) Simple three-pool model accurately describes patterns of long-term litter decomposition in diverse climates. Glob Change Biol 14:2636–2660

    Google Scholar 

  • Aguiar MNR, Sala OE (1999) Patch structure, dynamics and implications for the functioning of arid ecosystems. Trends Ecol Evol 14:273–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahlström A, Raupach MR, Schurgers G et al (2015) The dominant role of semi-arid ecosystems in the trend and variability of the land CO2 sink. Science 348:895–899

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Austin A, Yahdjian L, Stark J et al (2004) Water pulses and biogeochemical cycles in arid and semiarid ecosystems. Oecologia 141:221–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes PW, Throop HL, Archer SR et al (2015) Sunlight and soil-litter mixing: drivers of litter decomposition in drylands. Progress Bot 76:273–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barron-Gafford GA, Cable JM, Bentley LP, Scott RL, Huxman TE, Jenerette GD, Ogle K (2014) Quantifying the timescales over which exogenous and endogenous conditions affect soil respiration. New Phytologist 202:442–454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond-Lamberty B, Thomson A (2010) A global database of soil respiration data. Biogeosciences 7:1915–1926

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boone RD, Nadelhoffer KJ, Canary JD, Kaye JP (1998) Roots exert a strong influence on the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration. Nature 396:570–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke IC, Kaye JP, Bird SP, Hall SA, Mcculley RL, Sommerville GL (2003) Evaluating and testing models of terrestrial biogeochemistry: the role of temperature in controlling decomposition. Models in ecosystem science. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 225–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Cable JM, Ogle K, Lucas RW et al (2011) The temperature responses of soil respiration in deserts: a seven desert synthesis. Biogeochemistry 103:71–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cable JM, Ogle K, Barron-Gafford GA et al (2013) Antecedent conditions influence soil respiration differences in shrub and grass patches. Ecosystems 16:1230–1247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castillo-Monroy AP, Maestre FT, Rey A, Soliveres S, Garcia-Palacios P (2011) Biological soil crust microsites are the main contributor to soil respiration in a semiarid ecosystem. Ecosystems 14:835–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darrouzet-Nardi A, Reed SC, Grote EE, Belnap J (2015) Observations of net soil exchange of CO2 in a dryland show experimental warming increases carbon losses in biocrust soils. Biogeochemistry 126:363–378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Janssens IA (2006) Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440:165–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, EA, Samanta S, Caramori SS, Savage K (2012) The Dual Arrhenius and Michaelis–Menten kinetics model for decomposition of soil organic matter at hourly to seasonal time scales. Glob Change Biol 18:371–384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Savage KE, Finzi AC (2014) A big-microsite framework for soil carbon modeling. Glob Change Biol 20:3610–3620

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fierer N, Craine JM, Mclauchlan K, Schimel JP (2005) Litter quality and the temperature sensitivity of decomposition. Ecology 86:320–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foley JA (1995) An equilibrium model of the terrestrial carbon budget. Tellus B 47:310–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Moya E, Mckell CM (1970) Contribution of shrubs to the nitrogen economy of a desert-wash plant community. Ecology 51:81–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garfin G, Franco G, Blanco H et al (2014) Chapter 20: Southwest. Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment. US Global Change Research Program, pp 462–486

  • Heinemeyer A, Di Bene C, Lloyd AR et al (2011) Soil respiration: implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar-insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 efflux rates in three ecosystems. Eur J Soil Sci 62:82–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huxman T, Snyder K, Tissue D et al (2004) Precipitation pulses and carbon fluxes in semiarid and arid ecosystems. Oecologia 141:254–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janssens IA, Kowalski AS, Ceulemans R (2001) Forest floor CO2 fluxes estimated by eddy covariance and chamber-based model. Agric For Meteorol 106:61–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lal R (2004) Carbon sequestration in dryland ecosystems. Environ Manag 33:528–544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leff J, Nemergut D, Grandy AS, O’neill S, Wickings K, Townsend A, Cleveland C (2012) The effects of soil bacterial community structure on decomposition in a tropical rain forest. Ecosystems 15:284–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leifeld J, Fuhrer J (2005) The temperature response of CO2 production from bulk soils and soil fractions is related to soil organic matter quality. Biogeochemistry 75:433–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lepock JR (2003) Cellular effects of hyperthermia: relevance to the minimum dose for thermal damage. Int J Hyperth 19:252–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd J, Taylor JA (1994) On the temperature dependence of soil respiration. Funct Ecol 8:315–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo Y, Zhou X (2010) Soil respiration and the environment. Academic press, Burlington

    Google Scholar 

  • Manzoni S, Schaeffer SM, Katul G, Porporato A, Schimel JP (2014) A theoretical analysis of microbial eco-physiological and diffusion limitations to carbon cycling in drying soils. Soil Biol Biochem 73:69–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mccluney KE, Belnap J, Collins SL et al (2012) Shifting species interactions in terrestrial dryland ecosystems under altered water availability and climate change. Biol Rev 87:563–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyano FE, Manzoni S, Chenu C (2013) Responses of soil heterotrophic respiration to moisture availability: an exploration of processes and models. Soil Biol Biochem 59:72–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nadelhoffer K, Aitkenhead J, Boone R et al (2006) The DIRT experiment. Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England, 300

  • Nielsen UN, Ball BA (2015) Impacts of altered precipitation regimes on soil communities and biogeochemistry in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Glob Change Biol 21:1407–1421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noy-Meir I (1973) Desert ecosystems: environment and producers. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 4:25–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parton WJ, Ojima DS, Cole CV, Schimel DS (1994) A general model for soil organic matter dynamics: sensitivity to litter chemistry, texture and management. In: In 1992, Proceedings of the symposium on quantitative modeling of soil forming processes, Minneapolis, pp 147–167

  • Pietikäinen J, Pettersson M, Bååth E (2005) Comparison of temperature effects on soil respiration and bacterial and fungal growth rates. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 52:49–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poulter B, Frank D, Ciais P et al (2014) Contribution of semi-arid ecosystems to interannual variability of the global carbon cycle. Nature 509:600–603

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed SC, Coe KK, Sparks JP, Housman DC, Zelikova TJ, Belnap J (2012) Changes to dryland rainfall result in rapid moss mortality and altered soil fertility. Nat Clim Change 2:752–755

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds JF, Smith DMS, Lambin EF et al (2007) Global desertification: building a science for dryland development. Science 316:847–851

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rotenberg E, Yakir D (2010) Contribution of semi-arid forests to the climate system. Science 327:451–454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan MG, Law BE (2005) Interpreting, measuring, and modeling soil respiration. Biogeochemistry 73:3–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savage K, Davidson EA, Richardson AD, Hollinger DY (2009) Three scales of temporal resolution from automated soil respiration measurements. Agric For Meteorol 149:2012–2021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scanlon BR, Andraski BJ, Bilskie J (2002) Miscellaneous methods for measuring matric or water potential. In: Methods of soil analysis part 4, pp 643–673. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI

  • Schimel DS (2010) Drylands in the earth system. Science 327:418–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger W, Pilmanis A (1998) Plant-soil Interactions in deserts. Biogeochemistry 42:169–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH, Belnap J, Marion G (2009) On carbon sequestration in desert ecosystems. Glob Change Biol 15:1488–1490

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seager R, Ting M, Li C, Naik N, Cook B, Nakamura J, Liu H (2013) Projections of declining surface-water availability for the southwestern United States. Nat Clim Change 3:482–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shipper LA, Hobbs JK, Rutledge S, Arcus VL (2014) Thermodynamic theory explains the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial processes and high Q10 values at low temperatures. Glob Change Biol 20:3578–3586

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sierra CA, Trumbore SE, Davidson EA, Vicca S, Janssens I (2015) Sensitivity of decomposition rates of soil organic matter with respect to simultaneous changes in temperature and moisture. J Adv Modeling Earth Syst 7:335–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tucker CL, Bell J, Pendall EP, Ogle K (2013) Does declining carbon-use efficiency explain thermal acclimation of soil respiration with warming? Glob Change Biol 19(1):252–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tucker CL, Tamang S, Pendall EP, Ogle K (2016) Shallow snowpack inhibits soil respiration in sagebrush steppe through multiple biotic and abiotic mechanisms. Ecosphere (in press)

  • Van Gestel NC, Reischke S, Bååth E (2013) Temperature sensitivity of bacterial growth in a hot desert soil with large temperature fluctuations. Soil Biol Biochem 65:180–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vehtari A, Gelman A (2014) WAIC and cross-validation in Stan. Submitted. http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/unpublished/waic_stan.pdf. Accessed date on May 27 2014

  • Wang B, Zha T, Jia X, Wu B, Zhang Y, Qin S (2014) Soil moisture modifies the response of soil respiration to temperature in a desert shrub ecosystem. Biogeosciences 11:259–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang B, Zha T, Jia X, Gong JN, Wu B, Bourque CPA, Zhang Y, Qin SG, Chen GP, Peltola H (2015) Microtopographic variation in soil respiration and its controlling factors vary with plant phenophases in a desert-shrub ecosystem. Biogeosciences 12:5705–5714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wertin TM, Phillips SL, Reed SC, Belnap J (2012) Elevated CO2 did not mitigate the effect of a short-term drought on biological soil crusts. Biol Fertil Soils 48:797–805

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams JW, Jackson ST (2007) Novel climates, no-analog communities, and ecological surprises. Front Ecol Environ 5:475–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wohlfahrt G, Fenstermaker LF, Arnone Iii JA (2008) Large annual net ecosystem CO2 uptake of a Mojave Desert ecosystem. Glob Change Biol 14:1475–1487

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Terrestrial Ecosystem Sciences Program, under Award Number DE-SC-0008168 and by the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area. We thank Pete Chuckran for his excellent work with plot installation and measurements, and we are appreciative of all of the technicians who worked on this project. We are grateful to our D-DIRT collaborators Heather Throop and Marie-Anne de Graaff for their ideas and collaboration. We also thank Jessie Young for her valuable feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, 2290 SW Resource Blvd, Moab, UT, 84532, USA

    Colin L. Tucker & Sasha C. Reed

Authors
  1. Colin L. Tucker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sasha C. Reed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colin L. Tucker.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Jonathan Sanderman.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10533_2016_200_MOESM1_ESM.zip

Supplementary material 1 Compressed folder containing model code, for all 20 models in.R and.stan format, data in.csv format, as well as instructions for installing Rstan and running the code provided (ZIP 47 kb)

10533_2016_200_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary material 2 Table containing prior distributions, prior 95 % intervals, and posterior 95 % credible intervals for each parameter in each model (XLSX 32 kb)

10533_2016_200_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 3 Maximum soil respiration (R s ) for 99 studies taken from the Global Soil Respiration Database (Bond-Lamberty and Thomson 2010) compared to mean annual precipitation (MAP) and mean annual temperature (MAT) (PDF 160 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tucker, C.L., Reed, S.C. Low soil moisture during hot periods drives apparent negative temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in a dryland ecosystem: a multi-model comparison. Biogeochemistry 128, 155–169 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-016-0200-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-016-0200-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation