Abstract
ABSTRACT Soil fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) play an important role in the global greenhouse gas budget. However, the response of soil N2O emissions to climate change in temperate forest plantations is not yet well understood. In this study, we assessed the responses of soil N2O fluxes to experimental warming with or without water addition, using a replicated in situ heating (~2°C above ambient) and water addition (170 mm) experiment in a temperate Sitka spruce plantation forest over the period 2014–2016. We found that seasonal fluxes of N2O during the year were highly variable, ranging from net uptake to net emissions. Seasonal variations in soil N2O fluxes were not correlated with either soil temperature or soil moisture. In addition, none of the individual warming/watering treatments, or their interactions, had significant effects on soil N2O fluxes and N-related soil properties. Overall, our results suggest that despite future increases in temperature, soil N2O emission may remain largely unchanged in many temperate forest ecosystems that are often N-limited.
Highlights
For the past two centuries anthropogenic activities, such as increased fossil fuel combus tion, deforestation, and land use change, have resulted in increased atmospheric con centrations of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) (IPCC 2013)
We investigated the responses of soil N2O fluxes to artificially increased temperatures and variations in water availability, as well as a combination of the two factors, in an Irish Sitka spruce forest plantation
The major objectives of this study were to assess the effect of atmospheric warming on soil N2O fluxes and how this could be further impacted by alterations in water availability, together with the likely abiotic or biotic drivers
Summary
For the past two centuries anthropogenic activities, such as increased fossil fuel combus tion, deforestation, and land use change, have resulted in increased atmospheric con centrations of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) (IPCC 2013). The available evidence indicates that this will result in an increase in global air temperatures by 1.1–6.4° C by the end of this century, together with altered precipitation frequency and intensity at both regional and global scales (IPCC 2013). The mean precipitation is generally thought to increase in tropical regions and at high latitudes, but decrease in the subtropics (IPCC 2013); ecosystems in temperate regions may be subject to increases in pre cipitation in the future. In the absence of any input of water, an increase in soil temperature will result in a decrease in soil water availability. Any future changes in temperature are, inextricably linked with changes in water availability,
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