Abstract
Land-use change has a crucial influence on soil respiration, which further affects soil nutrient availability and carbon stock. We monitored soil respiration rates under different land-use types (tea gardens with three production levels, adjacent woodland, and a vegetable field) in Eastern China at weekly intervals over a year using the dynamic closed chamber method. The relationship between soil respiration and environmental factors was also evaluated. The soil respiration rate exhibited a remarkable single peak that was highest in July/August and lowest in January. The annual cumulative respiration flux increased by 25.6% and 20.9% in the tea garden with high production (HP) and the vegetable field (VF), respectively, relative to woodland (WL). However, no significant differences were observed between tea gardens with medium production (MP), low production (LP), WL, and VF. Soil respiration rates were significantly and positively correlated with organic carbon, total nitrogen, and available phosphorous content. Each site displayed a significant exponential relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature measured at 5 cm depth, which explained 84–98% of the variation in soil respiration. The model with a combination of soil temperature and moisture was better at predicting the temporal variation of soil respiration rate than the single temperature model for all sites. Q10 was 2.40, 2.00, and 1.86–1.98 for VF, WL, and tea gardens, respectively, indicating that converting WL to VF increased and converting to tea gardens decreased the sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature. The equation of the multiple linear regression showed that identical factors, including soil organic carbon (SOC), soil water content (SWC), pH, and water soluble aluminum (WSAl), drove the changes in soil respiration and Q10 after conversion of land use. Temporal variations of soil respiration were mainly controlled by soil temperature, whereas spatial variations were influenced by SOC, SWC, pH, and WSAl.
Highlights
Terrestrial ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle and are the most active carbon pools that affect the atmospheric CO2 concentration [1]
Temporal variations of soil respiration were mainly controlled by soil temperature, whereas spatial variations were influenced by soil organic carbon (SOC), soil water content (SWC), pH, and water soluble aluminum (WSAl)
The annual cumulative respiration flux increased by 25.6% and 20.9% when WL was converted to high production (HP) and vegetable field (VF), respectively, but no difference was observed when WL was converted to medium production (MP) and low production (LP)
Summary
Terrestrial ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle and are the most active carbon pools that affect the atmospheric CO2 concentration [1]. Land-use change is one of the human activities that has a significant impact on the variability in terrestrial ecosystems and soil CO2 emission, and contributes greatly to the increase of atmospheric CO2 [5]. Liu et al [8] demonstrated that the conversion of a natural broadleaf evergreen forest to a conventionally managed bamboo forest had no significant effect on the total annual soil CO2 efflux. These contradictory results require further study to provide clear evidence based on accurate measurements to deepen our current understanding of the effects of land-use change on terrestrial ecosystems and the carbon cycle
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