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Plant community composition alters moisture and temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in semi-arid shrubland

  • SPECIAL ISSUE: IN HONOR OF RUSSELL K. MONSON
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Abstract

Soil respiration (Rs) is the second largest carbon (C) flux to the atmosphere and our understanding of how Rs and its components shift with plant-community composition remains an important question. We used high-frequency soil respiration measurements and root exclusion to evaluate how Rs, autotrophic respiration (Ra) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh) vary between a semi-arid perennial shrub community and annual invasive community. Over two growing seasons, total Rs was 40% higher under annual vegetation compared to shrubs. Partitioning revealed consistently higher Ra under annual vegetation which accounted for most of the difference in Rs. Under annual vegetation, Ra increased soon after the first rain events and remained high despite cooling temperatures while shrub Ra increased only when soil temperature began to warm up. The Rh rates were similar between vegetation types when daily soil temperatures were lower than 20 °C. As soil temperatures increased and soil moisture dropped below 10%, Rh was consistently higher under annual vegetation than shrubs. Seasonal dynamics of Rs and Rh were best modeled with an interaction term between soil moisture and temperature with significantly different model parameters for each vegetation type. Differences in the timing and magnitude of Rs and Ra between vegetation types are consistent with phenological differences between shrubs and annuals. Under annuals, larger Rh at high temperatures suggests that expansion of annual vegetation and future hotter and drier conditions could lead to greater C losses from this semi-arid shrub system.

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Data availability

All daily data are archived online with Dryad (https://datadryad.org) and freely available https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z387 (Mauritz and Lipson 2020). Additional complementary root biomass (Fig. S6, Data S1) and diurnal flux data for selected parts of the season (Fig. 4, Data S2) are available in the supplement.

Code availability

R code for figures and statistical analysis in this manuscript is printed in the supplement (Code S1).

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Acknowledgements

We are happy to participate in this Special Issue honoring Russ Monson. This article is dedicated to Russ, whose patient and skilled mentorship created this and many other opportunities. We thank W. Oechel for lending us the Licor 8100 automated chamber system; J. Verfaille, P. Bryant, C. Sturtevant, H. Ikawa, and M. Merkeley for their help in the field, coding, and lab; D. Deutschman for statistical consultation; C.T. Lai for feedback and Lipson Lab for constant, invaluable support. The Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology at San Diego State University for student support. This work would not have been possible without you.

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  1. University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University, El Paso, TX, 79902, USA

    M. Mauritz

  2. Department of Biology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182-4614, USA

    D. A. Lipson

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  1. M. Mauritz
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MM and DAL designed and carried out the study, MM performed the field work and data analysis, MM wrote the manuscript with input and edits from DAL.

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Correspondence to M. Mauritz.

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Mauritz, M., Lipson, D.A. Plant community composition alters moisture and temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in semi-arid shrubland. Oecologia 197, 1003–1015 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04961-4

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