Effect of litterfall input on soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity in moso bamboo forest under simulated drought.

Abstract

Increases in drought frequency and intensity under climate change will have great impacts on the carbon cycle of forest ecosystems. Understanding the responses of soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity to drought is necessary, when we assess whether soil is a carbon sink or source. The effects of litterfall input on soil respiration, temperature sensitivity and its lagging effect were studied in moso bamboo forests under simulated drought by ceiling method in the field with three litterfall treatments, i.e., ambient litterfall (unchanged, LU), litter addition (LA) and litter removal (LR). The results showed that LU decreased annual soil respiration rate in drought treatment (2.34 Μmol·m-2·s-1), compared with that in the control (3.15 Μmol·m-2·s-1) with ambient natural rainfall. LR showed stronger effect on soil respiration than LA. Compared with LU, LR decreased soil respiration rate by 21.0% in ambient condition and by 20.9% in drought treatment, while LA led to 5.3% increase only in drought treatment. Such a result indicated that the effects of LA and LR on soil respiration rate were stronger than LU in the drought condition. Drought decreased the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration by 8.4%, while LA and LR reduced that by 15.4% and 7.6%, respectively. The cumulative CO2 emissions during the whole 18 months were 7.35 and 5.40 kg CO2·m-2 in the control and drought treatment. Compared with LU, LA increased the cumulative CO2 emissions by 1.8% and 10.7%, and LR decreased that by 19.9% and 18.0% in the control and drought treatments. Our results indicated that the relationship between the litterfall amount (addition or removal) and soil respiration rate was nonlinear. The significant lagging effect may be caused by the decrease in root growth and microbial activity due to decreased soil water availability in drought treatment. Litterfall played a more important role in soil CO2 emission under drought, and thus litterfall was a crucial factor in soil carbon emission in the context of climate change.