Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 4, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/srep06512
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41175138, 31400383]
- Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program) [2014CB954400]
- State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology
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The roles of substrate availability and quality in determining temperature sensitivity (Q(10)) of soil carbon (C) decomposition are still unclear, which limits our ability to predict how soil C storage and cycling would respond to climate change. Here we determined Q(10) in surface organic layer and subsurface mineral soil along an elevation gradient in a temperate forest ecosystem. Q(10) was calculated by comparing the times required to respire a given amount of soil C at 15 and 25 degrees C in a 350-day incubation. Results indicated that Q(10) of the organic layer was 0.22-0.71 (absolute difference) higher than Q(10) of the mineral soil. Q(10) in both the organic layer (2.5-3.4) and the mineral soil (2.1-2.8) increased with decreasing substrate quality during the incubation. This enhancement of Q(10) over incubation time in both layers suggested that Q(10) of more labile C was lower than that of more recalcitrant C, consistent with the Arrhenius kinetics. No clear trend of Q(10) was found along the elevation gradient. Because the soil organic C pool of the organic layer in temperate forests is large, its higher temperature sensitivity highlights its importance in C cycling under global warming.
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