Responses of soil respiration and its sensitivities to temperature and precipitation: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Global warming has caused changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, and the subsequent effects on the dynamics of soil respiration (Rs) have had a significant impact on the global carbon balance. Despite numerous studies, the interacting responses of Rs to multiple causes of global change are unknown. We combined studies of 178 temperature treatments and 134 precipitation treatments in a global meta-analysis to examine the response of Rs to temperature and precipitation treatments in terrestrial ecosystems. The results showed that the average warming and precipitation increased Rs by 13.1% and 33.1%, respectively. The effect sizes of Rs were positive for other global variables (mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), elevation and duration of experiment (DUR)). Moreover, the effect size of Rs decreased exponentially with increasing DUR warming and decreased parabolically with increasing precipitation change, indicating a strong dependence of Rs on global climate conditions. Moreover, the two-way and multi-dimensional interactions of global changing factors have created the positive effects of the individual effects. Rainfall is a key factor in the interaction experiments between precipitation and warming in farmland and urban grassland ecosystems, and other environmental factors interacted significantly with precipitation and temperature, indirectly altering Rs. As multiple global climate change factors often occur simultaneously, it is important to conduct long-term multifactorial experiments to assess the response of Rs to global changes.