Greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, N2O) emissions from soils following afforestation in central China

Abstract

The effects of afforestation are of great importance for terrestrial carbon sequestration. However, the consequences of afforestation for greenhouse gas (GHG, CO2, CH4 and N2O) fluxes remain poorly quantified. We investigate the temporal variations in CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes in afforested soils (implementing woodland and shrubland) and the adjacent uncultivated area in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area of central China. We examined the effects of soil factors [e.g. soil temperature, soil moisture, soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), soil organic nitrogen (SON)], litter exclusion and vegetation types on GHG fluxes. Our results revealed that afforestation lead to a higher average CO2 flux from soils by 63.96% and a higher N2O flux by 54.53% in the observed year. The peak CO2 and CH4 fluxes from afforested soils occurred in summer, while the peak N2O flux occurred in winter. Afforestation also enhanced CH4 flux from soil with the largest increase by 247.94% in woodland and by 188.18% in shrubland in spring compared with the open area. On average, surface litter exclusion reduced soil CO2 fluxes by 18.84% and N2O fluxes by 27.93% in the woodland. The surface litter exclusion did not significantly affect CH4 flux from the afforested soils. The CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes from soils were strongly influenced by soil temperature, moisture and SOC content across seasons. The N2O flux was also strongly affected by SON content in our experimental field. Our results suggested that afforestation enhanced GHG fluxes from soils; however, the magnitude of the GHG fluxes should also be considered from various environmental conditions and vegetation types.