Abstract
Arthropods are a major soil fauna group, and have the potential to substantially influence the spatial and temporal variability of soil greenhouse gas (GHG) sinks and sources. The overall effect of soil-inhabiting arthropods on soil GHG fluxes still remains poorly quantified since the majority of the available data comes from laboratory experiments, is often controversial, and has been limited to a few species. The main objective of this study was to provide first insights into field-level carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) release of soil-inhabiting larvae of the Scarabaeidae family. Larvae of the genus Melolontha were excavated at various sites in west-central and southern Germany, covering a wide range of different larval developmental stages, larval activity levels, and vegetation types. Excavated larvae were immediately incubated in the field to measure their GHG production. Gaseous carbon release of individual larvae showed a large inter- and intra-site variability which was strongly correlated to larval biomass. This correlation persisted when upscaling individual CO2 and CH4 production to the plot scale. Field release estimates for Melolontha spp. were subsequently upscaled to the European level to derive the first regional GHG release estimates for members of the Scarabaeidae family. Estimates ranged between 10.42 and 409.53 kt CO2 yr-1, and 0.01 and 1.36 kt CH4 yr-1. Larval N2O release was only sporadically observed and not upscaled. For one site, a comparison of field- and laboratory-based GHG production measurements was conducted to assess potential biases introduced by transferring Scarabaeidae larvae to artificial environments. Release strength and variability of captive larvae decreased significantly within two weeks and the correlation between larval biomass and gaseous carbon production disappeared, highlighting the importance of field measurements. Overall, our data show that Scarabaeidae larvae can be significant soil GHG sources and should not be neglected in soil GHG flux research.
Highlights
A precise knowledge of the sink and source distributions of greenhouse gases (GHG) in regional and global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets, and of the processes governing them, is a necessary prerequisite for the development and assessment of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies [1,2,3]
Soil fauna can substantially influence the spatial and temporal variability of GHG sinks and sources in the field [6,8,9,10]. They directly contribute to soil GHG fluxes via their respiratory and metabolic activities and indirectly by changing the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils through bioturbation, fragmentation and redistribution of plant residues, defecation, soil aggregate formation, herbivory, and grazing on microorganisms and fungi [6,11]
Gaseous carbon emissions of individual Melolontha spp. larvae showed a large inter- and intra-site variability which could not be explained by differences in soil temperature and soil moisture, or incubation duration
Summary
A precise knowledge of the sink and source distributions of greenhouse gases (GHG) in regional and global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets, and of the processes governing them, is a necessary prerequisite for the development and assessment of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies [1,2,3]. Soil fauna can substantially influence the spatial and temporal variability of GHG sinks and sources in the field [6,8,9,10]. They directly contribute to soil GHG fluxes via their respiratory and metabolic activities and indirectly by changing the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils through bioturbation, fragmentation and redistribution of plant residues, defecation, soil aggregate formation, herbivory, and grazing on microorganisms and fungi [6,11]. The magnitude of the effect of soil fauna on the overall GHG sink and source capacity of soils remains poorly quantified since the majority of our current knowledge still comes from laboratory experiments, is often controversial, and has been limited to only a few regions and species [12,13,14,15]
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