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Impacts of precipitation, warming and nitrogen deposition on methane uptake in a temperate desert

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Abstract

Desert soils are a significant global sink for methane (CH4). However, it remains unclear how CH4 uptake in temperate deserts could respond to elevated precipitation, nitrogen (N) deposition and warming. An in situ field experiment was conducted to investigate these effects on CH4 uptake in the Gurbantunggut Desert, northwest China, from September 2014 to August 2017. This desert was a weak sink for CH4 (0.83 kg C ha−1 year−1) over this period, with the non-growing season (November–March) accounting for 30.5% of the annual CH4 uptake. Pulse CH4 uptake was found to result from increased water addition (by 30% or 60 mm year−1) and low N deposition (30 kg N ha−1 year−1) which enhanced annual CH4 uptake by 62.3 and 52.6%, respectively. However, no significant impact of high N deposition (60 kg N ha−1 year−1) was found. Warming in open topped chambers (OTCs) had a variable effect on CH4 uptake, which mainly depended on variation in soil moisture. The response in CH4 uptake to the interaction between water and N addition was less than that for the individual factors, except under conditions of warming. In addition, CH4 uptake was significantly positively correlated to water-filled pore space (WFPS), differing from observations in forest and grassland ecosystems. Structural equation modeling indicated that CH4 uptake was significantly enhanced by soil moisture and the underground biomass of ephemerals. Overall, the CH4 sink of this desert was significantly enhanced by increasing precipitation and low N deposition, rather than warming, which may become a feedback for future climate.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41703131, 41603084, 41425007), the Ten-Thousand Talent Program (X. J. Liu), and Foundation for Excellent Youth Scholars of “Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources”, CAS. The authors thank Dr. Peter Christie and Tom Misslbrook for their careful linguistic corrections to the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Urat Desert-Grassland Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Ping Yue

  2. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Ping Yue, Wenchao Wu, Yanming Gong & Kaihui Li

  3. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions of MOE, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Xiaoqing Cui & Xuejun Liu

  4. Sustainable Agricultural Sciences Department, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK

    Keith Goulding

  5. Naiman Desertification Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Ping Yue

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  1. Ping Yue
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Correspondence to Xuejun Liu.

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Yue, P., Cui, X., Wu, W. et al. Impacts of precipitation, warming and nitrogen deposition on methane uptake in a temperate desert. Biogeochemistry 146, 17–29 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-019-00606-0

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