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Effect of Individual Trees on Soil Respiration in Forest Ecosystems under Industrial Pollution

  • RESPIRATION OF URBAN SOILS
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Abstract

The effect of individual trees on soil and litter respiration in forests polluted with heavy metals from copper smelter emissions was investigated for the first time. We tested the hypothesis that the portion of spatial variability in soil respiration explained by the distance from the tree trunk decreases on polluted plots in comparison with the background area. The study was performed in the southern taiga spruce–fir and birch forests under long-term pollution from the Middle Ural Copper Smelter in the Revda City, Sverdlovsk region, Russia. Measurement points were located near spruce and birch trees at different distances from tree trunks (tree-base plot, the middle of the crown projection, and canopy gap). The total CO2 emission, litter respiration, litter contribution to soil respiration, specific respiratory activity of litter, and litter stock were measured at each point. In the background area, soil respiration decreased from the tree trunk to the canopy gap. The hypothesis was only partially confirmed: the portion of respiration variance explained by the distance from tree trunks decreased in polluted areas in comparison with the background areas in spruce forests but did not change in birch forests. The observed change in spruce forests was related to a drop in specific respiratory activity of litter, though litter stock was considerably higher near the tree trunk than in the canopy gap. We propose to locate measurement points in the middle of the crown projection, i.e., at a sufficient distance from tree trunks and away from the canopy gaps, to reduce potential bias in soil respiration estimates.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (projects no. 122021000076-9 and no. FEUZ-2023-0023).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 620144, Yekaterinburg, Russia

    I. A. Smorkalov & E. L. Vorobeichik

  2. Ural Federal University Named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, 620002, Yekaterinburg, Russia

    I. A. Smorkalov

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  1. I. A. Smorkalov
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Correspondence to I. A. Smorkalov.

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Translated by I. Bel’chenko

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Smorkalov, I.A., Vorobeichik, E.L. Effect of Individual Trees on Soil Respiration in Forest Ecosystems under Industrial Pollution. Eurasian Soil Sc. 56, 1281–1290 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229323601191

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229323601191

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