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Revegetation modifies patterns of temporal soil respiration responses to extreme-drying-and-rewetting in a semiarid ecosystem

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Abstract

Background and aims

Changes in climate and land-use are altering soil respiration patterns and thus affecting C sequestration rates globally. This study aims to understand the effect of revegetation induced land-use change on the response of soil respiration to precipitation pulses during an extreme-drying-and-rewetting period.

Methods

Soil respiration (SR) in cropland, grassland, shrubland, and orchard were intensively monitored along with environmental variables during an extreme drought period with precipitation pulse on China’s Loess Plateau.

Results

SR was strongly correlated to soil water content for all land-uses. However, the relationship was highly dependent on land-use types: SR was only strongly suppressed in cropland and orchard when moisture content exceeded 10.8 and 13.7%, respectively, whereas no clear suppression was observed under other land-uses. As a result, the C loss in grassland and shrubland was 49.1–78.9% higher than in cropland following significant precipitation events. In addition, SR was negatively and weakly correlated with soil temperature, indicating the change in the dominant control on SR due to extreme drought.

Conclusions

Land-use change alters the response of soil respiration to soil moisture during extreme-drying-and-rewetting periods in this revegetated ecosystem. Its effect on respiration pulses will amplify as extreme climate events increase in the future, which may potentially alter the existing C balance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan (No. 2016YFC0400204), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41571506, 41171316, 51579212), the Young-Talent Nurturing program of the Northwest A&F University, and the Integrative Science-Technology Innovation Engineering Project of Shaanxi (No. 2016KTZDNY-01-03).

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Author notes

  1. Wenhao Sun and Xining Zhao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key laboratory of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid and Semiarid Areas, Ministry of Education, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Wenhao Sun, Xining Zhao, Qiang Ling, Hongchen Li & Xiaodong Gao

  2. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A & F University, No. 26, Xinong Road, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xining Zhao & Xiaodong Gao

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  1. Wenhao Sun
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  2. Xining Zhao
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Gao.

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Sun, W., Zhao, X., Ling, Q. et al. Revegetation modifies patterns of temporal soil respiration responses to extreme-drying-and-rewetting in a semiarid ecosystem. Plant Soil 433, 227–241 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3835-y

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