Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 7, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041493
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China [2009CB42110x]
- Strategic Priority Research Program-Climate Change: Carbon Budget and Relevant Issues of Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDA05050205]
- Dinghushan Forest Ecosystem Research Station
- National Science Foundation [0933958]
- Div Of Biological Infrastructure
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0933958] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: The aim of this study was to determine response patterns and mechanisms of soil respiration to precipitation increases in subtropical regions. Methodology/Principal Findings: Field plots in three typical forests [i.e. pine forest (PF), broadleaf forest (BF), and pine and broadleaf mixed forest (MF)] in subtropical China were exposed under either Double Precipitation (DP) treatment or Ambient Precipitation (AP). Soil respiration, soil temperature, soil moisture, soil microbial biomass and fine root biomass were measured over three years. We tested whether precipitation treatments influenced the relationship of soil respiration rate (R) with soil temperature (T) and soil moisture (M) using R=(a+cM)exp(bT), where a is a parameter related to basal soil respiration; b and c are parameters related to the soil temperature and moisture sensitivities of soil respiration, respectively. We found that the DP treatment only slightly increased mean annual soil respiration in the PF (15.4%) and did not significantly change soil respiration in the MF and the BF. In the BF, the increase in soil respiration was related to the enhancements of both soil fine root biomass and microbial biomass. The DP treatment did not change model parameters, but increased soil moisture, resulting in a slight increase in soil respiration. In the MF and the BF, the DP treatment decreased soil temperature sensitivity b but increased basal soil respiration a, resulting in no significant change in soil respiration. Conclusion/Significance: Our results indicate that precipitation increasing in subtropical regions in China may have limited effects on soil respiration.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available