Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Seven-year experimental warming decreases labile but not recalcitrant soil organic carbon fractions in a coastal wetland

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The response of soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions to climate warming plays an important role in influencing the fate of soil C stocks. Coastal wetlands have high C sequestration; however, complex water and salt stress conditions lead to a large uncertainty in the effects of warming on SOC dynamics. Further, numerous short-term warming studies cannot provide an unbiased estimate of the warming impacts and mechanisms.

Methods

In our study, the topsoil (0–10 cm) and subsoil (20–40 cm) were collected to assess the changes in SOC dynamics after seven-year experiment warming in a coastal wetland in the Yellow River Delta. Additionally, we conducted a short-term dynamic temperature ramping incubation experiment to evaluate the SOC decomposition rate and its temperature sensitivity.

Results

Warming significantly decreased the SOC content by 38.7% in the topsoil but had no effect in the subsoil. Warming significantly decreased the labile SOC fractions, including dissolved organic C (DOC) and particulate organic C (POC) in the topsoil but not in the subsoil. By contrast, warming did not alter the recalcitrant mineral-associated organic C (MAOC) fraction in both topsoil and subsoil. Warming-induced elevated soil salinity caused a decrease in labile SOC fractions, presumably through weakening the quantity of plant inputs. In addition, warming significantly increased the SOC mineralization rate in the topsoil, but did not change its temperature sensitivity in both the topsoil and subsoil.

Conclusions

Overall, our findings highlight the importance of considering the varying responses of labile and recalcitrant SOC fractions to warming, which would aid in obtaining more accurate projections of SOC dynamics in coastal wetlands under future climate change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (U2106209, 42071126), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23050202), and the International Science Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (121311KYSB20190029). We are grateful for the support from the Yellow River Delta Ecological Research Station of Coastal Wetland, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guangxuan Han.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Jianming Xu

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sun, R., Sun, B., Li, X. et al. Seven-year experimental warming decreases labile but not recalcitrant soil organic carbon fractions in a coastal wetland. J Soils Sediments 23, 3071–3081 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03536-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03536-5

Keywords

Navigation