CO2 emission response to different water conditions under simulated karst environment

Abstract

Habitat degradation has been proven to result associated with drought in karst region in south China. However, how this drought condition relates to CO2 efflux is not clear. In this study, we designed a simulated epikarst water–rock (limestone)–soil–plant columns, under varying water levels (treatment), and monitored CO2 concentration and efflux in soil in different seasons during 2011. The results showed that increased soil water greatly enhanced CO2 concentrations. With which treatment with epikarst water (WEW) had higher CO2 concentration than without epikarst water (WOEW). This was particularly high in low soil water treatment and during high temperature in the summer season. Under 30–40 % relative soil water content (RSWC), CO2 concentration in WEW treatment was 1.44 times of WOEW; however, under 90–100 % RSWC, this value was smaller. Comparatively, soil surface CO2 efflux (soil respiration) was 1.29–1.94 μmol m−2 s−1 in WEW and 1.35–2.04 μmol m−2 s−1 in WOEW treatment, respectively. CO2 efflux increased with increasing RSWC, but it was not as sensitive to epikarst water supply as CO2 concentration. WEW tended to weakly influence CO2 efflux under very dry or very wet soil condition and under low temperature. High CO2 efflux in WEW occurred under 50–80 % RSWC during summer. Both CO2 concentrations and CO2 efflux were very sensitive to temperature increase. As a result, at degraded karst environment, increased temperature may enhance CO2 concentration and CO2 emission; meanwhile, the loss of epikarst and soil water deficiency may decrease soil CO2 concentration and CO2 emission, which in turn may decrease karst corrosion.