Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Forest soil respiration reflects plant productivity across a temperature gradient in the Alps

  • Ecosystem ecology - Original research
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Soil respiration (R s) plays a key role in any consideration of ecosystem carbon (C) balance. Based on the well-known temperature response of respiration in plant tissue and microbes, R s is often assumed to increase in a warmer climate. Yet, we assume that substrate availability (labile C input) is the dominant influence on R s rather than temperature. We present an analysis of NPP components and concurrent R s in temperate deciduous forests across an elevational gradient in Switzerland corresponding to a 6 K difference in mean annual temperature and a considerable difference in the length of the growing season (174 vs. 262 days). The sum of the short-lived NPP fractions (“canopy leaf litter,” “understory litter,” and “fine root litter”) did not differ across this thermal gradient (+6 % from cold to warm sites, n.s.), irrespective of the fact that estimated annual forest wood production was more than twice as high at low compared to high elevations (largely explained by the length of the growing season). Cumulative annual R s did not differ significantly between elevations (836 ± 5 g C m−2 a−1 and 933 ± 40 g C m−2 a−1 at cold and warm sites, +12 %). Annual soil CO2 release thus largely reflected the input of labile C and not temperature, despite the fact that R s showed the well-known short-term temperature response within each site. However, at any given temperature, R s was lower at the warm sites (downregulation). These results caution against assuming strong positive effects of climatic warming on R s, but support a close substrate relatedness of R s.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aber JD, Melillo JM, Nadelhoffer KJ, McClaugherty CA, Pastor J (1985) Fine root turnover in forest ecosystems to quantity and form of nitrogen availability: A comparison of two methods. Oecologia 66:317–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Allison I, Bindoff NL, Bindoff RA et al (2009) The Copenhagen Diagnosis 2009: updating the world on the latest climate science. The University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), Sydney

  • Bader M, Hiltbrunner E, Körner C (2009) Fine root responses of mature deciduous forest trees to free air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE). Functional Ecology 23:913–921

    Google Scholar 

  • Bader MKF, Körner C (2010) No overall stimulation of soil respiration under mature deciduous forest trees after 7 years of CO2 enrichment. Global Change Biology 16:2830–2843

    Google Scholar 

  • Bekku Y, Kimura M, Ikeda H, Koizumi H (1997) Carbon input from plant to soil through root exudation in Digitaria adscendens and Ambrosia artemisiifolia. Ecol Res 12:305–312

  • Bond-Lamberty B, Wang C, Gower ST (2004) A global relationship between the heterotrophic and autotrophic components of soil respiration? Global Change Biology 10:1756–1766

    Google Scholar 

  • Bond-Lamberty B, Thomson A (2010) Temperature-associated increases in the global soil respiration record. Nature 464:579–582

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bradford MA, Davies CA, Frey SD et al (2008) Thermal adaption of soil microbial respiration to elevated temperature. Ecol Lett 11:1316–1327

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks PD, Schmidt SK, Williams MW (1997) Winter production of CO2 and N2O from alpine tundra: environmental controls and relationship to inter-system C and N fluxes. Oecologia 110:403–413

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks PD, McKnight D, Elder K (2004) Carbon limitation of soil respiration under winter snowpacks: potential feedbacks between growing season and winter carbon fluxes. Global Change Biology 11:231–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen G, Yang Y, Guo J, Xie J, Yang Z (2011) Relationships between carbon allocation and partitioning of soil respiration across world mature forests. Plant Ecology 212:195–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Conant RT, Ryan MG, Agren GI et al (2011) Temperature and soil organic matter decomposition rates—synthesis of current knowledge and a way forward. Global Change Biology 17:3392–3404

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox PM, Betts RA, Jones CD, Spall SA, Totterdell IJ (2000) Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model. Nature 408:184–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramer W, Bondeau A, Woodward FI et al (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

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Belk E, Boone RD (1998) Soil water content and temperature as independent or confounded factors controlling soil respiration in a temperate mixed hardwood forest. Global Change Biology 4:217–227

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Savage K, Verchot LV, Navatto R (2002a) Minimizing artifacts and biases in chamber-based measurements of soil respiration. Agric For Meteorol 113:21–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Savage K, Bolstad P et al (2002b) Belowground carbon allocation in forests estimated from litterfall and IRGA-based soil respiration measurements. Agric For Meteorol 113:39–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Janssens IA (2006) Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440:165–173

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer H, Meyer A, Fischer K, Kuzyakov Y (2007) Carbohydrate and amino acid composition of dissolved organic matter leached from soils. Soil Biol Biochem 39:2926–2935

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedlingstein P, Cox P, Betts R et al (2006) Climate-carbon cycle feedback analysis: results from the (CMIP)-M-4 model intercomparison. J Climate 19:3337–3353

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaul D, Hertel D, Leuschner C (2009) Estimating fine root longevity in a temperate Norway spruce forest using three independent methods. Funct Plant Biol 36:11–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Girardin CAJ, Malhi Y, Aragão LEOC et al (2010) Net primary productivity allocation and cycling of carbon along a tropical forest elevational transect in the Peruvian Andes. Global Change Biology 16:3176–3192

    Google Scholar 

  • Gough CM, Vogel CS, Harrold KH, George K, Curtis PS (2007) The legacy of harvest and fire on ecosystem carbon storage in a north temperate forest. Global Change Biology 13:1935–1949

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson PJ, Edwards NT, Garten CT, Andrews JA (2000) Separating root and soil microbial contributions to soil respiration: a review of methods and observation. Biogeochemistry 48:115–146

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Harris D, Horwath WR, Van Kessel C (2001) Acid fumigation of soils to remove carbonates prior to total organic carbon or carbon-13 isotopic analysis. Soil Sci Soc 65:1853–1856

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath J, Ayres E, Possell M, Bardgett RD, Black HIJ, Grant H, Ineson P, Kerstiens G (2005) Rising atmospheric CO2 reduces sequestration of root-derived soil carbon. Science 309:1711–1713

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Heimann M, Reichstein M (2008) Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks. Nature 451:289–292

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Högberg P, Nordgren A, Buchmann N, Taylor AFS, Ekblad A, Hogberg MN, Nyberg G, Ottoson Lofvenius M, Read DJ (2001) Large-scale forest girdling shows that current photosynthesis drives soil respiration. Nature 411:789–792

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2001) Climate Change 2001: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: synthesis report. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Jacob M, Leuschner C, Thomas FM (2010) Productivity of temperate broad-leaved forest stands differing in tree species diversity. Ann For Sci 67:9

    Google Scholar 

  • Janssens IA, Lankreijer H, Matteucci G et al (2001) Productivity overshadows temperature in determining soil and ecosystem respiration across European forests. Global Change Biology 7:269–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirschbaum MUF (1995) The temperature dependence of soil organic matter decomposition, and the effect of global warming on soil organic C storage. Soil Biol Biochem 27:753–760

    Google Scholar 

  • Knorr W, Prentice IC, House JI, Holland EA (2005) Long-term sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to warming. Nature 433:298–301

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Körner C (1998) Alpine plants: stressed or adapted? In: Press MC, Scholes JD, Barker MG (eds) Physiological plant ecology. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 297–311

  • Körner C, Asshoff R, Bignucolo O et al (2005) Carbon flux and growth in mature deciduous forest trees exposed to elevated CO2. Science 309:1360–1362

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuzyakov Y, Larionova AA (2005) Root and microbial respiration: a review of approaches to estimate respiration by autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms in soil. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 168:503–520

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuzyakov Y, Gavrichkova O (2010) Time lag between photosynthesis and carbon dioxide efflux from soil: a review of mechanisms and controls. Global Change Biology 16:3386–3406

    Google Scholar 

  • Leuschner C, Moser G, Bertsch C, Roderstein M, Hertel D (2007) Large altitudinal Increase in tree root/shoot ratio in tropical mountain forests of Equador. Basic Appl Ecol 8:219–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd J, Taylor JA (1994) On the temperature dependence of soil respiration. Funct Ecol 8:315–323

    Google Scholar 

  • Lund CP, Riley WJ, Pierce LL, Field CB (1999) The effects of chamber pressurization on soil-surface CO2 efflux and the implications for NEE measurements under elevated CO2. Global Change Biology 5:269–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo YQ, Wan SQ, Hui DF, Wallace LL (2001) Acclimatization of soil respiration to warming in a tall grass prarie. Nature 413:622–625

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahecha MD, Reichstein M, Carvalhais N et al (2011) Global convergence in the temperature sensitivity of respiration at ecosystem level. Science 329:838–840

    Google Scholar 

  • Malhi Y, Baldocchi DD, Jarvis PG (1999) The carbon balance of tropical, temperate and boreal forests. Plant Cell Environ 22:715–740

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariko S, Nishimura N, Mo W, Matsui Y, Kibe T, Koizumi H (2000) Winter CO2 flux from soil and snow surfaces in a cool-temperate deciduous forest, Japan. Ecol Res 15:363–372

    Google Scholar 

  • Mast MA, Wickland KP, Striegl RT, Clow DW (1998) Winter fluxes of CO2 and CH4 from subalpine soils in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Global Biogeochem Cy 12:607–620

    Google Scholar 

  • McDowell NG, Marshall JD, Hooker TD, Musselman R (2000) Estimating CO2 flux from snowpacks at three sites in the Rocky Mountains. Tree Physiol 20:745–753

    Google Scholar 

  • Melillo JM, Steudler PA, Aber JD et al (2002) Soil warming and carbon-cycle feedbacks to the climate system. Science 298:2173–2176

    Google Scholar 

  • Moser G, Leuschner C, Hertel D, Graefe S, Soethe N, Iost S (2011) Elevation effects on the carbon budget of tropical mountain forests (S Ecuador): the role of the belowground compartment. Global Change Biology 17:2211–2226

    Google Scholar 

  • Perruchoud D, Kienast F, Kaufmann E, Ulrich Bräker O (1999) 20th century carbon budget of forest soils in the Alps. Ecosystems 2:320–337

  • Persson H, Ahlström K (1990) The effects of forest liming on fertilization on fine-root growth. Water Air Soil Pollut 54:365–375

    Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2009) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

  • Raich JW, Nadelhoffer KJ (1989) Belowground carbon allocation in forest ecosystems: global trends. Ecology 70:1346–1354

    Google Scholar 

  • Raich JW, Schlesinger WH (1992) The global carbon-dioxide flux in soil respiration and its relationship to vegetation and climate. Tellus B 44:81–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Raich JW, Potter CS (1995) Global patterns of carbon-dioxide emissions from soils. Global Biogeochem Cy 9:23–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Roderstein M, Hertel D, Leuscher C (2005) Above- and below-ground litter production in three tropical montane forests in southern Ecuador. J Trop Ecol 21:483–492

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruehr N, Knohl A, Buchmann N (2010) Environmental variables controlling soil respiration on diurnal, seasonal and annual time-scales in a mixed mountain forest in Switzerland. Biogeochemistry 98:153–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Schindlbacher A, Zechmeister-Boltenstern S, Glatzel G, Jandl R (2007) Winter soil respiration from Austrian mountain forest. Agric For Meteorol 146:205–215

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulze ED (1982) Plant life forms and their carbon, water and nutrient relations. Encycl Plant Physiol 12B:616–676

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulze ED, Högberg P, van Oene H, Persson T, Harrison AF, Read D, Kjöller A, Matteucci G (2000) Interactions between the carbon and nitrogen cycle and the role of biodiversity: a synopsis of a study along a north–south transect through Europe. In: Schulze ED (ed) Carbon and nitrogen cycling in European forest ecosystems (Ecological Studies). Springer, Berlin, pp 468–491

  • Sommerfeld RA, Mosier AR, Musselman RC (1993) CO2, CH4 and N2O flux through a Wyoming snowpack and implications for global budgets. Nature 361:140–142

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steele SJ, Gower ST, Vogel JG, Norman JM (1997) Root mass, net primary production an turnover in aspen, jack pine and black spruce forests in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. Tree Physiol 17:577–587

    Google Scholar 

  • Strömgren M, Linder S (2002) Effects of nutrition and soil warming on stemwood production in a boreal Norway spruce stand. Global Change Biology 8:1195–1204

    Google Scholar 

  • Trumbore SE, Bonani G, Wölfi W (1990) The rates of carbon cycling in several soils from AMS 14C measurements of fractionated soil organic matter. In: Bouwman AF (ed) Soils and the greenhouse effect. Wiley, New York, pp 405–414

  • Trumbore SE, Chadwick OA, Amundson R (1996) Rapid exchange between soil carbon and atmospheric carbon dioxide driven by temperature change. Science 272:393–396

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vogt KA, Grier CC, Meier CE, Edmonds RL (1982) Micorrhizal role in net primary production and nutrient cycling in Abies amabilis ecosystems in western Washington. Ecology 63:370–380

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang C, Yang J, Zhang Q (2006) Soil respiration in six temperate forests in China. Global Change Biology 12:2103–2114

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmermann M, Meir P, Bird MI, Malhi Y, Ccahuana AJQ (2009) Climate dependence of heterotrophic soil respiration from a soil-translocation experiment along a 3000 m tropical forest altitudinal gradient. Eur J Soil Sci 60:895–906

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmermann M, Meir P, Bird MI, Malhi Y, Ccahuana AJQ (2010) Temporal variation and climate dependence of soil respiration and its components along a 3000 m altitudinal tropical forest gradient. Global Biogeochem Cy 24:GB4012

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Franz Conen for soil C and N analysis, Eva Spehn for comments on the manuscrift draft, Erika Hiltbrunner for practical advice (all from the University of Basel), and to several volunteers for field assistance. Financial support was provided by COST-639 and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Schönbeinstrasse 6, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Riccarda Caprez & Christian Körner

  2. Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland

    Pascal A. Niklaus

Authors
  1. Riccarda Caprez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pascal A. Niklaus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Christian Körner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Riccarda Caprez.

Additional information

Communicated by Evan DeLucia.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Caprez, R., Niklaus, P.A. & Körner, C. Forest soil respiration reflects plant productivity across a temperature gradient in the Alps. Oecologia 170, 1143–1154 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2371-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2371-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation