Abstract
The influence of simulated climate change on soil respiration was studied in a field experiment on 4 m × 5 m plots in the semiarid temperate Pannonian sand forest-steppe. This ecosystem type has low productivity and soil organic matter content, and covers large areas, yet data on soil carbon fluxes are still limited. Soil respiration rate – measured monthly between April and November from 2003 to 2006 – remained very low (0.09 – 1.53 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1) in accordance with the moderate biological activity and low humus content of the nutrient poor, coarse sandy soil. Specific soil respiration rate (calculated for unit soil organic matter content), however, was relatively high (0.36 – 7.92 μmol CO2 g−1 Corg h−1) suggesting substrate limitation for soil biological activity. During the day, soil respiration rate was significantly lower at dawn than at midday, while seasonally clear temperature limitation in winter and water limitation in summer were detected. Between years, annual precipitation appeared to be important in determining soil carbon efflux intensity. Nocturnal warming increased soil temperature in 1 cm depth at dawn by 1.6°C on the average, and decreased topsoil (0–11 cm) moisture content by 0.45 vol%. Drought treatment decreased soil moisture content by an average of 0.81 vol%. Soil respiration rate tended to decrease by 7–15% and 13–15% in response to heat and drought treatment, respectively, although the changes were not statistically significant. Nocturnal warming usually prevented dew formation, and that probably also influenced soil respiration. Based on these results, we expect a reduction in the volume and rate of organic matter turnover in this ecosystem in response to the anticipated climate change in the region.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of Variance
- LAI:
-
Leaf Area Index
References
Agam, N. and P.R. Berliner. 2006. Dew formation and water vapour adsorption in semi-arid environments - A review. J. Arid Environ. 65: 572–590.
Beier, C., B. Emmett, P. Gundersen, A. Tietema, J. Peñuelas, M. Estiarte, C. Gordon, A. Gorissen, L. Llorens, F. Roda and D. Williams. 2004. Novel approaches to study climate change effects on terrestrial ecosystems in the field: drought and passive nighttime warming. Ecosystems 7:583–597.
Beier, C. 2004. Climate change and ecosystem function – full-scale manipulations of CO2 and temperature. New Phytol. 162: 243–251.
Borhidi, A. and A. Sánta. (eds.) 1999. Vörös Könyv Magyarország Növénytársulásairól 1–2. (The Red Book of the plant communities in Hungary.) Természetbúvár Alapítvány Kiadó, Budapest.
Cramer, W., A. Bondeau, F.I. Woodward, I.C. Prentice, R.A. Betts, V. Brovkin, P.M. Cox, V. Fisher, J.A. Foley, A.D. Friend, C. Kucharik, M.R. Lomas, N. Ramankutty, S. Sitch, B. Smith, A. White and C. Young-Molling. 2001. Global response of terrestrial ecosystem structure and function to CO2 and climate change: results from six dynamic global vegetation models. Global Change Biology 7: 357–373.
Davidson, E.A., E. Belk and R.D. Boone. 1998. Soil water content and temperature as independent or confounded factors controlling soil respiration in a temperate hardwood forest. Global Change Biology 4: 217–227.
Dunne, J.A., S.R. Saleska, M.L. Fischer and J. Harte. 2004. Integrating experimental and gradient methods in ecological climate change research. Ecology 85: 904–916.
Emmett, B., C. Beier, M. Estiarte, A. Tietema, H.L. Kristensen, D. Williams, J. Peñuelas, I. Schmidt and A. Sowerby. 2004. The response of soil processes to climate change: Results from manipulation studies of shrublands across an environmental gradient. Ecosystems 7: 625–637.
Flanagan, L.B., L.A. Wever and P.J. Carlson. 2002. Seasonal and interannual variation in carbon dioxide exchange and carbon balance in a northern temperate grassland. Global Change Biology 8: 599–615.
Frank, A.B., M.A. Liebig and J.D. Hanson. 2002. Soil carbon dioxide fluxes in northern semiarid grasslands. Soil Biol. Biochem. 34: 1235–1241.
Gosz, J.R. and P.J.H. Sharpe. 1989. Broad-scale concepts for interactions for climate, topography and biota at biome transitions. Landscape Ecol. 3: 229–243.
Grant, R.F., W.C. Oechel, and C. Ping. 2003. Modelling carbon balances of coastal arctic tundra under changing climate. Global Change Biology 9: 16–36.
Harper, C.W., J.M. Blair, P.A. Fay, A.K. Knapp and J.D. Carlisle. 2005. Increased rainfall variability and reduced rainfall amount decreases soil CO2 flux in a grassland ecosystem. Global Change Biology 11: 322–334.
IPCC 2001. Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report. A Contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the Third Assessment Report of the Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Watson, R.T. and the Core Writing Team (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and New York, NY, USA, 398 pp.
Kertész, M. 1991. Soil moisture regime of the sandy desert steppe (Bugac, Hungary). In: Dynamics of primary production and soil processes in grassland ecosystems. Simon, T. and Kefeli, V.I. (eds). (In Russian) Publ.: Institute of Soil Sci. and Photosynthesis, Acad. Sci., USSR. pp. 149–157
Kirschbaum, M.U.F. 2004. Soil respiration under prolonged soil warming: are rate reductions caused by acclimation or substrate loss? Global Change Biology 10:1870–1877.
Kovács-Láng, E. 1974. Examination of dynamics of organic matter in a perennial open sandy steppe-meadow (Festucetum vaginatae danubiale) at the Csévharaszt IBP sample area (Hungary). Acta Bot. Acad. Sci. Hung. 20: 309–326.
Kovács-Láng, E., Gy. Kröel-Dulay, M. Kertész, G. Fekete, J. Mika, T. Rédei, K. Rajkai, I. Hahn and S. Bartha. 2000. Changes in the composition of sand grasslands along a climatic gradient in Hungary and implications for climate change. Phytocoenologia 30: 385–407.
Luo, Y., S. Wan, D. Hui and L.L. Wallace. 2001. Acclimatization of soil respiration to warming in a tall grass prairie. Nature 413: 622–624.
McCulley, R.L., S.R. Archer, T.W. Boutton, F.M. Hons and D.A. Zuberer. 2004. Soil respiration and nutrient cycling in wooded communities developing in grassland. Ecology 85: 2804–2817.
Mielnick, P.C. and W.A. Dugas. 2000. Soil CO2 flux in a tallgrass prairie. Soil Biol. Biochem. 32: 221–228.
Mika, J. 2003. Regionális éghajlati forgatókönyvek: tények és két-ségek. (Regional climatic scenarios: facts and doubts.) In: Csete L. (ed.): “Agro-21” Füzetek 32: 11–24.
Molnár, K. and J. Mika. 1997. Climate as a changing component of landscape: recent evidence and projections for Hungary. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie N.F. 110: 185–195.
Murthy, R., K.L. Griffin, S.J. Zarnoch, P.M. Dougherty, B. Watson, J.V. Haren, R.L. Patterson and T. Mahato. 2003. Carbon dioxide efflux from a 550 m2 soil across a range of soil temperatures. Forest Ecol. Manage. 178: 311–327.
Parton, W.J., M. Hartman, D. Ojima and D.S. Schimel. 1998. DAY-CENT and its land surface submodel: Description and testing. Global Planet. Change 19: 35–48.
Raich, J.W. and W.H. Schlesinger. 1992. The global carbon dioxide flux in soil respiration and its relationship to vegetation and climate. Tellus Series B 44: 81–99.
Raich, J.W. and A. Tufekcioglu. 2000. Vegetation and soil respiration: correlations and controls. Biogeochemistry 48: 71–90.
Reichstein, M., A. Rey, A. Freibauer, J. Tenhunen, R. Valentini, J. Banza, P. Casals, Y. Cheng, J.M. Grünzweig, J. Irvine, R. Joffre, B.E. Law, D. Loustau, F. Miglietta, W. Oechel, J.M. Ourcival, J.S. Pereira, A. Peressotti, F. Ponti, Y. Qi, S. Rambal, M. Rayment, J. Romanya, F. Rossi, V. Tedeschi, G. Tirone, M. Xu and D. Yakir. 2003. Modelling temporal and large-scale spatial variability of soil respiration from soil water availability, temperature and vegetation productivity indices. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 17: 1104.
Risser, P.G. 1995. The status of the science examining ecotones. BioScience 45: 318–325.
Rustad, L.E., J.L. Campbell, G.M. Marion, R.J. Norby, M.J. Mitchell, A.E. Hartley, J.H.C. Cornelissen, J. Gurevitch and GCTE NEWS. 2001. A meta-analysis of the response of soil respiration, net nitrogen mineralization, and aboveground plant growth to experimental ecosystem warming. Oecologia 126: 543–562.
Sabine, C.L., M. Heimann, P. Artaxo, D.C.E. Bakker, C-T.A. Chen, C.B. Field, N. Gruber, C.L. Quéré, R.G. Prinn, J.E. Richey,P.R. Lankao, J.A. Sathaye and R. Valentini. 2004. Current status and past trends of the global carbon cycle. In: Field, C.B., Raupach, M.R. (eds.), The Global Carbon Cycle. SCOPE, Island Press, Washington. pp. 17–44.
Saleska, S.R., J. Harte and M.S. Torn. 1999. The effect of experimental ecosystem warming on CO2 fluxes in a montane meadow. Global Change Biology 5: 125–141.
Sokal,R.R. and F.J. Rohlf. 1981. Biometry. The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research. 2nd ed. Freeman, New York.
Sponseller, R.A. 2007. Precipitation pulses and soil CO2 flux in a Sonoran Desert ecosystem. Global Change Biology 13: 426–436.
StatSoft, Inc. 2001. STATISTICA (data analysis software system), version 6. www.statsoft.com.
Szász, G. 1967. Kondenzációs folyamatok megfigyelése és mérése homoktalajban. (Observation and determination of condensation processes in sand soil.) Agrokémia és Talajtan 16: 663–668.
Szász, G. 1972. A talajfelszin közelében képződő csapadékmennyiség meghatározása. (Determination of the amount of precipitation forming close to the soil surface.) Időjárás 76:208–222.
Szili-Kovács, T., T. Tóth, M. Halassy, K. Török. 2000. Homok-pusztagyepek természetvédelmi restaurációja a talaj-nitrogén immobilizációjával. (Restoration of sandy grasslands through the immobilization of soil nitrogen.) Agrokémia és Talajtan 49:491–504.
Szili-Kovács, T. and K. Török. 2005. Szénforráskezelés hatása a talaj mikrobiális aktivitására és biomasszájára felhagyott homoki szántókon. (Effect of carbon addition on the soil microbial activity and biomass on abandoned sandy fields.). Agrokémia és Talajtan 54:149–162.
Thornley, J.H.M. and M.G.R. Cannell. 1997. Temperate grassland responses to climate change: an analysis using the Hurley Pasture Model. Ann. Bot. 80: 205–221.
Tingley, D.T., E.H. Lee, R. Waschmann, M.G. Johnson and P.T. Rygiewicz. 2006. Does soil CO2 efflux acclimatize to elevated temperature and CO2 during long-term treatment of Douglas-fir seedlings? New Phytol. 170:107–118.
Verseghy, K., E. Kovács-Láng and K. Mázsa. 1987. Diurnal and seasonal changes of thallus water content of xerothermic lichens. Lichen Physiol. Biochem. 2: 31–44.
Whittaker, R.H. 1975. Communities and Ecosystems. 2nd ed. Macmillan, London.
Wildung, R.E., T.R. Garland and R.L. Buschbom. 1975. The interdependent effects of soil temperature and moisture content on soil respiration rate and plant root decomposition in arid grassland soils. Soil Biol. Biochem. 7: 373–378.
Wilson, J.M. and D.M. Griffin. 1975. Water potential and the respiration of microorganisms in the soil. Soil Biol. Biochem. 7: 199–204.
Xu, M. and Y. Qi. 2001. Spatial and seasonal variations of Q10 determined by soil respiration measurements at a Sierra Nevadan forest. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 15: 687–696.
Zhou,X.,R.A. Sherry, Y. An,L.L. Wallace and Y. Luo. 2006. Main and interactive effects of warming, clipping, and doubled precipitation on soil CO2 efflux in a grassland ecosystem. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 20: GB1003 (1–12).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Lellei-Kovács, E., Kovács-Láng, E., Kalapos, T. et al. Experimental warming does not enhance soil respiration in a semiarid temperate forest-steppe ecosystem. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 9, 29–37 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.9.2008.1.4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.9.2008.1.4
Keywords
- Drought treatment
- Heat treatment
- Plot-scale climate change experiment
- Soil CO2 efflux
- Substrate limitation