Abstract
The responses of soil respiration to environmental conditions have been studied extensively in various ecosystems. However, little is known about the impacts of temperature and moisture on soils respiration under biological soil crusts. In this study, CO2 efflux from biologically-crusted soils was measured continuously with an automated chamber system in Ningxia, northwest China, from June to October 2012. The highest soil respiration was observed in lichen-crusted soil (0.93±0.43 µmol m−2 s−1) and the lowest values in algae-crusted soil (0.73±0.31 µmol m−2 s−1). Over the diurnal scale, soil respiration was highest in the morning whereas soil temperature was highest in the midday, which resulted in diurnal hysteresis between the two variables. In addition, the lag time between soil respiration and soil temperature was negatively correlated with the soil volumetric water content and was reduced as soil water content increased. Over the seasonal scale, daily mean nighttime soil respiration was positively correlated with soil temperature when moisture exceeded 0.075 and 0.085 m3 m−3 in lichen- and moss-crusted soil, respectively. However, moisture did not affect on soil respiration in algae-crusted soil during the study period. Daily mean nighttime soil respiration normalized by soil temperature increased with water content in lichen- and moss-crusted soil. Our results indicated that different types of biological soil crusts could affect response of soil respiration to environmental factors. There is a need to consider the spatial distribution of different types of biological soil crusts and their relative contributions to the total C budgets at the ecosystem or landscape level.
Highlights
Soil respiration (Rs) accounts for the second largest carbon flux between terrestrial ecosystems and atmosphere, after gross primary productivity
The degree of hysteresis was small in lichen-crusted soil, and large in moss-crusted soil (Table 4)
The lag time was reduced as VWC increased
Summary
Soil respiration (Rs) accounts for the second largest carbon flux between terrestrial ecosystems and atmosphere, after gross primary productivity. We have limited knowledge on the biophysical controls of Rs in dryland ecosystems. Drylands cover 41–47% of the terrestrial surface [2]. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) as a biological factor commonly cover 70% of the intercanopy earth in dryland and are found in all ecosystems around the world [3]. It is important to study the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature and moisture, on Rs under BSCs. It is important to study the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature and moisture, on Rs under BSCs This knowledge can reduce bias in ecosystem-level estimation of Rs and can help us predict how climate changes will affect CO2 flux in desert ecosystems
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