Abstract

Soil heterotrophic respiration is a major flux of CO2 between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere.It is defined as the sum of carbon releases as gaseous products in the microbial decomposition of soil carbon pool.Soil heterotrophic respiration plays a critical role in regulating the global carbon cycle and is potentially sensitive to climate changes in the future.The alpine area of southwestern China is one of the most sensitive areas to climate change.Therefore,it is of great importance to investigate the response of soil heterotrophic respiration to climate in this region for evaluating the contribution of regional carbon cycle to global climate changes. A process-based biogeochemical model CEVSA(Carbon Exchange between Vegetation,Soil,and the Atmosphere) was used to estimate the temporal and spatial variations of soil heterotrophic respiration(HR) in alpine area of southwestern China during the period from 1954 to 2010.We conducted CEVSA model with observation-based data sets of climate(ten days mean value of temperature,precipitation,relative humidity,and cloudiness),atmospheric CO2 concentration,and soil and vegetation distribution at a spatial resolution of 0.1°.Using the climate,vegetation and soil data,firstly,we ran the model with the average climate data from 1954 to 2010 until an ecological equilibrium was reached,then conducted dynamic simulations with climate data at a time-step of ten days from 1954 to 2010.Also,the correlation coefficients between soil HR and climate variables were calculated to analyze the response of soil heterotrophic respiration to climate change.To achieve the results,various kinds of computer software were used,such as ANUSPLIN4.1,Fortran 90,Arcgis 9.3,SPSS18.0.The results showed that:(1) The mean values of soil HR density was 422 g C · m-2 · a-1 during the period of 1954—2010 in alpine area of southwestern China.The soil HR showed a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest and had significant positive correlation with both annual mean temperature(r = 0.721,P 0.01) and annual total precipitation(r = 0.564,P 0.01).(2)Total annual soil HR showed an increasing trend with the rate of 0.710 Tg C/a(P0.05),and varied between 197 and 251 Tg C/a.The increasing rate was 1.621,1.496 and 1.055 g C · m-2 · a-2 in grassland,evergreen coniferous forest and evergreen broad-leaved forest(P0.01),which were three main vegetation types in alpine area of southwestern China,respectively.(3) Annual variation of soil HR was mainly influenced by temperature.The temperature sensitivity of soil HR(Q10) in the high-elevation northwestern areas was higher than that in the low-elevation southeastern areas,and it is 2.35,2.34 and 1.93 in grassland,evergreen coniferous forest and evergreen broad-leaved forest in this area,respectively. Soil heterotrophic respiration is an extremely complex process involving a variety of biological and non-biological factors.Climate and vegetation changed with topography and high space heterogeneity existed in alpine area of southwestern China.For these reasons,we suggest that the model resolution should be improved and validation of the simulation result should be strengthened in future to reduce uncertainty.

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