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Effects of Litter Inputs on N2O Emissions from a Tropical Rainforest in Southwest China

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Abstract

Litter inputs are expected to have a strong impact on soil N2O efflux. This study aimed to assess the effects of the litter decomposition process and nutrient efflux from litter to soil on soil N2O efflux in a tropical rainforest. A paired study with a control (L) treatment and a litter-removed (NL) treatment was followed for 2 years, continuously monitoring the effects of these treatments on soil N2O efflux, fresh litter input, decomposed litter carbon (LCI) and nitrogen (LNI), soil nitrate (NO3 −–N), ammonium (NH4 +–N), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and dissolved nitrogen (DN). Soil N2O flux was 0.48 and 0.32 kg N2O–N ha−1 year−1 for the L and NL treatments, respectively. Removing the litter caused a decrease in the annual soil N2O emission by 33%. The flux values from the litter layer were higher in the rainy season as compared to the dry season (2.10 ± 0.28 vs. 1.44 ± 0.35 μg N m−2 h−1). The N2O fluxes were significantly correlated with the soil NO3 −–N contents (P < 0.05), indicating that the N2O emission was derived mainly from denitrification as well as other NO3 − reduction processes. Suitable soil temperature and moisture sustained by rainfall were jointly attributed to the higher soil N2O fluxes of both treatments in the rainy season. The N2O fluxes from the L were mainly regulated by LCI, whereas those from the NL were dominated jointly by soil NO3 − content and temperature. The effects of LCI and LNI on the soil N2O fluxes were the greatest in the 2 months after litter decomposition. Our results show that litter may affect not only the variability in the quantity of N2O emitted, but also the mechanisms that govern N2O production. However, further studies are still required to elucidate the impacting mechanisms of litter decomposition on N2O emission from tropical forests.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Yunnan Province Natural Science Foundation under Grant Number 2016FB073, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Numbers U1602234, 41271056, and 31290221, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Numbers XDA05020302, XDA05050601, and XDA05050206), the CAS-JSPS Cooperative Research Project (Grant Number GJHZ1521), the CAS 135 project (Grant Numbers 2017XTBG-T01 and 2017XTBG-F01), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (2017VCA0036). We thank the staff members at the Xishuangbanna Station for Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Studies and the students from the Global Change Research Group of XTBG, CAS, for helping with field work. We also thank the technicians from the Central Laboratory of XTBG, CAS, for their support with the soil and litter analyses.

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Author notes

  1. Author contributions: JG and WZ conducted the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; GY, JZ, XZ, and JG assisted with writing the manuscript; YL, JZ, LS, QS, and YZ helped design the experiment and the manuscript; HJ, YL, XF, XB, XZ, YD, and XD assisted with the experiment.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China

    Jinbo Gao, Wenjun Zhou, Yuntong Liu, Liqing Sha, Qinhai Song, Hongli Ji, Youxing Lin, Xuehai Fei, Xiaolong Bai, Xiang Zhang, Yun Deng, Xiaobao Deng & Yiping Zhang

  2. Xishuangbanna Station for Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystem Studies, Chinese Ecosystem Research Net, Mengla, 666303, China

    Jinbo Gao, Wenjun Zhou, Yuntong Liu, Liqing Sha, Qinhai Song, Youxing Lin, Xuehai Fei, Xiaolong Bai, Xiang Zhang, Yun Deng, Xiaobao Deng & Yiping Zhang

  3. Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, 541004, China

    Jing Zhu

  4. Institute of Crops, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Science, Nanchang, 330200, China

    Hongli Ji

  5. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Guirui Yu

  6. Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Junhui Zhang

  7. State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xunhua Zheng

  8. School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, UK

    John Grace

  9. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jinbo Gao, Youxing Lin, Xuehai Fei, Xiaolong Bai, Xiang Zhang & Xunhua Zheng

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  1. Jinbo Gao
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  2. Wenjun Zhou
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  3. Yuntong Liu
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  4. Jing Zhu
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  10. Xiaolong Bai
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  11. Xiang Zhang
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  13. Xiaobao Deng
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  14. Guirui Yu
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  15. Junhui Zhang
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  17. John Grace
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  18. Yiping Zhang
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Correspondence to Wenjun Zhou or Yiping Zhang.

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Gao, J., Zhou, W., Liu, Y. et al. Effects of Litter Inputs on N2O Emissions from a Tropical Rainforest in Southwest China. Ecosystems 21, 1013–1026 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-017-0199-8

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