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Soil-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in temperate forests along an elevation gradient in the Qinling Mountains, China

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Abstract

Purpose

We sought to identify the effects of elevationally (1560−2160 m) driven climate (mean annual air temperatures of + 4.0 to + 10 oC and mean annual precipitation of 900–1200 mm), forest type and soil property variations on soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in the Qinling Mountains, China.

Methods

Soil GHGs were monitored at five temperate forest sites using static chambers for two full years. The related edaphoclimatic parameters were also monitored.

Results

The cumulative soil CO2 and N2O emissions and the CH4 uptake from the five sites ranged between 3.82 to 7.48 t CO2-C ha−1 yr−1, 1.19 to 2.25 kg N2O-N ha−1 yr−1, and 0.89 to 5.67 kg CH4-C ha−1 year−1, respectively. Average soil CO2 emissions decreased with increasing site elevation, whereas CH4 and N2O fluxes showed no clear relationship with site elevation. All sites were net CH4 sinks. Occasionally, soils switched to net sources of CH4 during summer or autumn rainfall events at all sites. All sites were net N2O sources although short periods of soil N2O uptake were observed during freeze–thaw cycles and during summer rainfall. The source strength of N2O and CH4 differed during summer and winter and snowfall which had direct effects on soil water content.

Conclusions

Site elevation could be used as a predictive variable for constructing regional soil CO2 emissions budgets, whereas soil CH4 and N2O fluxes are driven by a more complex interplay of climatic and soil biochemical variables, which are more difficult to integrate on a regional scale.

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Data Availability

The code and data will be provided to anyone upon request. You can contact with the first author Junzhu Pang (pangjunzhu@126.com).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41101182), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Z109021106), and by the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Z109021102). The authors would like to thank Tao Wang and Mingwang Yang for their assistance in the field. We are very grateful to Professor Klaus Butterbach-Bahl for providing helpful comments and suggestions during the revision process. We would also like to thank Elizabeth Tokarz at Yale University for her assistance with English language and grammatical editing of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Junzhu Pang & Changhui Peng

  2. Qinling National Forest Ecosystem Research Station, Huoditang, 711600, Ningshan, Shaanxi, China

    Junzhu Pang & Shuoxin Zhang

  3. College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Junzhu Pang, Changhui Peng & Shuoxin Zhang

  4. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Xiaoke Wang & Hongxing Zhang

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Contributions

All authors contributed intellectual input, provided study assistance and prepared the manuscript.

Junzhu Pang, Changhui Peng and Shuoxin Zhang conceived the idea and designed the study. Junzhu Pang collected and analysed the data with help from all authors. Junzhu Pang wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Changhui Peng or Shuoxin Zhang.

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Pang, J., Peng, C., Wang, X. et al. Soil-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in temperate forests along an elevation gradient in the Qinling Mountains, China. Plant Soil 488, 325–342 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-05967-y

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