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Warming and grazing affect soil labile carbon and nitrogen pools differently in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau in China

  • SOILS, SEC 1 • SOIL ORGANIC MATTER DYNAMICS AND NUTRIENT CYCLING • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

Small but highly bioactive labile carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools are of great importance in controlling terrestrial C and N fluxes, whilst long-term C and N storage is determined by less labile but relatively large sizes of C and N pools. Little information is available about the effects of global warming and grazing on different forms of C and N pools in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of warming and grazing on the sizes of different soil labile C and N pools and N transformation in this region.

Materials and methods

A free-air temperature enhancement system in a controlled warming–grazing experiment had been implemented since May 2006. Infrared heaters were used to manipulate temperature, and a moderate grazing intensity was simulated by Tibetan sheep. After 3 years’ warming, soil samples were taken from the four treatment plots: no warming with no grazing; no warming with grazing; warming with no grazing; and warming with grazing. Concentrations of inorganic N in the 40–cm soil profiles were measured by a flow injection analyser. Microbial biomass C (MBC) and microbial biomass N (MBN) were measured by the fumigation–extraction method, and soluble organic C (SOC) and soluble organic N (SON) were determined by high-temperature catalytic oxidation. Total N (TN), C isotope composition (δ13C) and N isotope composition (δ15N) were determined using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. Net N transformation under low temperature was studied in a laboratory incubation experiment.

Results and discussion

Warming and grazing treatments affected soil C and N pools differently, and these effects varied with soil depth. Warming significantly increased TN, MBC, MBN, and SON and decreased δ13C at the 10–20 and 20–30 cm soil depths, whilst grazing generally decreased SON at the 10–20 and 20–30 cm, and MBC at 20–30 cm. At the 0–10 cm depth, neither warming nor grazing alone affects these soil parameters significantly, indicating that there could be considerable perturbation on the soil surface. However, grazing alone increased NO −3 –N, total inorganic N, SOC and δ15N at the 0–10 cm depth. Incubated at 4°C, warming (particularly with grazing) led to net immobilization of N, but no-warming treatments led to net N mineralization, whilst nitrification was strong across all these treatments. Correlations between MBC and SOC, and TN and MBN or SON were positive. However, SON was less well correlated with TN and MBN compared with the highly positive correlations between SOC and MBC.

Conclusions

It is clearly demonstrated that warming and grazing affected labile C and N pools significantly, but differently after 3 years’ treatments: Warming tended to enlarge labile C and N pools through increased litter inputs, whilst grazing tended to increase inorganic N pools, decrease SON and accelerate N cycling. Grazing might modify the mode that warming affected soil C and N pools through its strong impacts on microbial processes and N cycling. These results suggested that interactive effects of warming and grazing on C and N pools might have significant implications for the long-term C and N storage and productivity of alpine meadow ecosystem in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Basic Research Program (2010CB833502), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Institute of Life Science, CAS (2010-Biols-CAS-0103), the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation Commission (30871824) and the Australian Research Council and Griffith University. We also thank Mr. Jichuang Duan, Dr. Guangping Xu and Ms. Wei Yang for their kind help with field sampling and Ms. Marijke Heenan and Mr. Rene Diocares for their technical support, as well as Mr. Alan Mark for his help in refining this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate University, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Yichao Rui, Yanfen Wang & Xiaoming Kang

  2. Environmental Futures Centre and School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland, 4111, Australia

    Yichao Rui, Zhihong Xu, Chengrong Chen, Xiaoqi Zhou & Shunbao Lu

  3. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, People’s Republic of China

    Shiping Wang

  4. Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, People’s Republic of China

    Qiaoyan Lin & Caiyun Luo

  5. Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, People’s Republic of China

    Yigang Hu

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  1. Yichao Rui
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Rui, Y., Wang, S., Xu, Z. et al. Warming and grazing affect soil labile carbon and nitrogen pools differently in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau in China. J Soils Sediments 11, 903–914 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0388-6

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