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The combined effects of warming and drying suppress CO2 and N2O emission rates in an alpine meadow of the eastern Tibetan Plateau

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Ecological Research

Abstract

The eastern Tibetan Plateau has become increasingly warmer and drier since the 1990s. Such warming and drying has a great impact on ecosystem processes on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. To determine their combined effects on CO2 and N2O emission rates, we conducted a field manipulative experiment in an alpine meadow of the eastern Tibetan Plateau during the growing season of 2009. The experiment showed that warming manipulation increased soil temperature by 1 °C, and drying manipulation decreased soil water content by 6.8 %. We found that by counteracting the effect of low temperature in the area, experimental warming significantly increased soil microbial biomass, the number of bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, ammonifying bacteria, nitrobacteria and denitrifying bacteria, and facilitated the emission rates of CO2 and N2O by 33.4 and 31.5 %, respectively. However, decreased precipitation further aggravated soil water stress and inhibited the numbers of these organisms, and reduced the emission rates of CO2 and N2O by 47.4 and 37.9 %, respectively. So decreased soil water content tended to offset the positive effect of warming. Compared to the positive effects of warming, decreased soil water content was shown in our study to have even greater impact on the eastern Tibetan Plateau during the growing season. Therefore, inhibition of CO2 and N2O emission rates (32.3 and 29.3 %, respectively) by warming and drying will intensify if the combined effects of these climatic trends persist in the region.

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Acknowledgments

The work was financially supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (09C2061105), the Forefront Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y0B2011100), and the Key Lab Open Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (08B2011105). The authors thank Dacong Chen for her help in laboratory work and the Key Lab of Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation of Sichuan (ECORES). The authors also would like to acknowledge the management personnel of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau of Songpan County for their generous assistance in our field studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 416, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Fusun Shi, Yan Wu & Ning Wu

  2. Laboratory for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yanglin, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Huai Chen

  3. Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, People’s Republic of China

    Huafeng Chen

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  1. Fusun Shi
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  3. Huafeng Chen
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  4. Yan Wu
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  5. Ning Wu
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Correspondence to Ning Wu.

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Shi, F., Chen, H., Chen, H. et al. The combined effects of warming and drying suppress CO2 and N2O emission rates in an alpine meadow of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Ecol Res 27, 725–733 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-012-0950-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-012-0950-8

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