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Root respiration and its relation to nutrient contents in soil and root and EVI among 8 ecosystems, northern China

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Abstract

Root respiration is a critical and uncertain component of ecosystem carbon budgets. We assessed whether variation in root respiration at a reference temperature were associated with that of root and soil nutrient contents and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) among 8 ecosystems, including three forests, two shrublands, two meadow grasslands, and one meadow in a forest-steppe ecotone in northern China. Mass specific root respiration was positively related to root nitrogen content when data from all the different classes of root diameter were pooled. Area specific root respiration increased with soil available nitrogen through increasing fine root biomass. Beside the effect of soil or root nutrient contents, mass specific respiration of fine roots followed EVI patterns, suggesting that root respiration was strongly dependent on photosynthesis. A simple respiration–EVI relationship may provide a convenient way to estimate root respiration and has potential applications in quantitative spatial extrapolation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 30870408, 30670342, and 90711002). We thank Z. F. Liu for his help with data analyses.

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  1. Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Wei Wang, Shushi Peng & Jingyun Fang

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  1. Wei Wang
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  2. Shushi Peng
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Correspondence to Wei Wang.

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Fig. S1

(a) C (%), (b) N (%) and (c) P (%) contents (means ± S.D.) for roots with diameters of 0–2 mm (blank), 2–5 mm (left diagonal) and >5 mm (right diagonal) across different ecosystems. P1, P2, P3 are 12-, 23-, and 39-year-old P. sylvestris; L1, L2, L3 are 12-, 22-, and 42-year old L. principis-rupprechtii; B1, MB, RB, M1, M2 and M are 46-year-old B. platyphylla, M. baccata, R. bella; meadow grassland 1, meadow grassland 2 and meadow. (DOC 38 kb)

Fig. S2

(a) Soil organic C (SOC) (%), (b) soil total N (STN) (%), (c) soil available N (mg kg−1) and (d) soil total P (STP) (%) contents across different ecosystems. Values are means ± S.D. P1, P2, P3 are 12-, 23-, and 39-year-old P. sylvestris; L1, L2, L3 are 12-, 22-, and 42-year old L. principis-rupprechtii; B1, MB, RB, M1, M2 and M are 46-year-old B. platyphylla, M. baccata, R. bella; meadow grassland 1, meadow grassland 2 and meadow. (DOC 30 kb)

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Wang, W., Peng, S. & Fang, J. Root respiration and its relation to nutrient contents in soil and root and EVI among 8 ecosystems, northern China. Plant Soil 333, 391–401 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0354-x

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