Abstract
Peatlands contain large amount of carbon stock that is vulnerable to release into the atmosphere. Mostly because of human impact, the peatlands at Zoige Wetlands face severe degradation, and the groundwater table is now lower than before, which has increased the population of the plateau zokor, a burrowing rodent. However, the impact of these changes on ecosystem carbon flows has not been studied. To investigate how the plateau zokor and the groundwater level alter the ecosystem respiration of the Zoige peatlands, we sampled the CO2 flux of hummocks shaped by the zokors and compared it with the CO2 flux of undisturbed sites with different groundwater table levels. The soil organic carbon (SOC), soil water content (SWC) and soil temperature at 5 cm (T5) were measured. SOC showed no significant difference among the four sampling sites and did not correlate with the CO2 flux, while SWC was found to partly determine the CO2 flux. A linear equation could adequately describe the relationship between the natural logarithm of the ecosystem respiration and the soil temperature. It is demonstrated that descending groundwater table might accelerate ecosystem respiration and the CO2 flux from hummocks was higher than the CO2 flux from the control site in the non-growing season. With rising temperature, the CO2 flux from the control site accelerated faster than that from the hummocks. Our results show that ecosystem respiration was significantly lower from hummocks than at the control site in the growing season. The results on the impact of zokors on greenhouse gas emissions presented in this paper provide a useful reference to help properly manage not only this, but other litter-burrowing mammals at peatland sites.
Highlights
The northern peatlands are thought to be the largest terrestrial carbon stock, containing 270–547 Pg C that has accumulated over approximately 10,000 years as a result of photosynthetic activity [1,2,3]
Plateau Zokor and Ecosystem Respiration presented in this paper provide a useful reference to help properly manage this, but other litter-burrowing mammals at peatland sites
In the Zoige peatlands, where colonies of plateau zokors change the local landscape at a small scale through digging holes, shaping hummocks, and removing plant material, and causing significant changes in the soil biogeochemistry that result in respiration variability
Summary
The northern peatlands are thought to be the largest terrestrial carbon stock, containing 270–547 Pg C that has accumulated over approximately 10,000 years as a result of photosynthetic activity [1,2,3]. To complete our understanding of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of peatlands, and to provide data for model simulations, it is important to collect information on ecosystem and soil respiration in peatlands where the groundwater table fluctuates widely. Such information will help to reveal the impact of drainage and restoration on the CO2 emissions of peatland, especially for those regions with the largest levels of C storage, like many of the high–elevation landscapes of China
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