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Separating component parts of soil respiration under Robinia pseudoacacia plantation in the Taihang Mountains, China

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Abstract

Partitioning the respiratory components of soil surface CO2 efflux is important in understanding carbon turnover and in identifying the soil carbon sink/source function in response to land-use change. The sensitivities of soil respiration components on changing climate patterns are currently not fully understood. We used trench and isotopic methods to separate total soil respiration into autotrophic (R A ) and heterotrophic components (R H ). This study was undertaken on a Robinia pseudoacacia L. plantation in the southern Taihang Mountains, China. The fractionation of soil 13CO2 was analyzed by comparing the δ13C of soil CO2 extracted from buried steel tubes with results from Gas Vapor Probe Kits at a depth of 50 cm at the preliminary test (2.03‰). The results showed that the contribution of autotrophic respiration (fR A ) increased with increasing soil depth. The contribution of heterotrophic respiration (fR H ) declined with increasing soil depth. The contribution of autotrophic respiration was similar whether estimated by the trench method (fR A , 23.50%) or by the isotopic method in which a difference in value of 13C between soil and plant prevailed in the natural state (RC, 21.03%). The experimental error produced by the trench method was insignificant as compared with that produced by the isotopic method, providing a technical basis for further investigations.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Jinsong Zhang, Sen Lu, and Ning Zheng from Research Institute, Forestry of Chinese Academy of Forestry for their helpful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41430747) and grant from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission (CEFF-PXM2016_014207_000038).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, No.35 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Na Zhao & Xinxiao Yu

  2. Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, No.1 East Little House, Haidian District, Beijing, 100091, China

    Ping Meng

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  1. Na Zhao
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  2. Ping Meng
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Correspondence to Xinxiao Yu.

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Project funding: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41430747) and grant from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission (CEFF-PXM2016_014207_000038).

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Corresponding editor: Chai Ruihai.

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Zhao, N., Meng, P. & Yu, X. Separating component parts of soil respiration under Robinia pseudoacacia plantation in the Taihang Mountains, China. J. For. Res. 28, 529–537 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-016-0337-8

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