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Elevated air carbon dioxide concentrations increase dissolved carbon leaching from a cropland soil

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Abstract

Increasing leaching losses of carbon from soils due to accelerated weathering and increasing concentrations of dissolved carbon as a result of intensified soil respiration are suspected to provide a negative feedback on rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. We tested this hypothesis by studying concentrations of dissolved carbon and groundwater recharge at the Braunschweig free air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiment under winter wheat and winter barley. Dissolved carbon concentrations under elevated atmospheric CO2 and ambient conditions were rather similar and not consistently higher under FACE. An analysis of δ13C signatures suggested that dissolved organic and inorganic carbon contained 9–29% (DOC) and 26–49% (DIC) of “new” carbon originating from CO2 added to the FACE rings. Dissolved inorganic carbon additionally contained 15–42% of carbonate-derived C. A 15% reduction in evapotranspiration under elevated CO2 increased groundwater recharge by 60 mm or 55%, which was the main driver for an observed 81% increase in dissolved carbon leaching from 2.7 to 4.9 g C m−2 year−1 at 90 cm depth. Our results suggest that future changes of dissolved carbon leaching losses will be mainly governed by changes in climate and groundwater recharge and to a lesser extent by increasing dissolved carbon concentrations.

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Acknowledgments

This project was partly funded by the German Research Foundation (Grant SI 1106/2-1). The FACE experiment was financed by the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). Support of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY, USA and the staff of the Institute of Biodiversity of the Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Franz Josef Löpmeier and Harald Braden of the German Meteorological Service for providing weather data, soil water contents, and drainage volumes of lysimeters at the Braunschweig site, as well as the Institute of Soil Science, University of Hohenheim and Christine Ehrlicher for determination of soil carbon contents, and Beate Gehnen for measuring the δ13C values of DIC. We acknowledge the suggestions of two anonymous reviewers that helped to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Andreas Pacholski

    Present address: Institute of Crop Science and Plant Breeding, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Hermann-Rodewald-Str. 9, 24118, Kiel, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, Technische Universität Berlin, Salzufer 12, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    Jan Siemens & Martin Kaupenjohann

  2. Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, Soil Science, University of Bonn, Nussallee 13, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Jan Siemens

  3. Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Bundesallee 50, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany

    Andreas Pacholski, Katia Heiduk, Anette Giesemann, René Dechow & Hans-Joachim Weigel

  4. Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801, Bochum, Germany

    Ulrike Schulte

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  1. Jan Siemens
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Correspondence to Jan Siemens.

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Siemens, J., Pacholski, A., Heiduk, K. et al. Elevated air carbon dioxide concentrations increase dissolved carbon leaching from a cropland soil. Biogeochemistry 108, 135–148 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-011-9584-0

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