Relationship between soil CO2 fluxes and soil moisture: Anaerobic sources explain fluxes at high water content

Soil moisture is a known environmental factor influencing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and therefore rep-resents an important variable in predictive models. Establishing relationships between soil CO2 emissions and soil moisture has long focused on the role of soil organic carbon mineralization by aerobic respiration. This approach, which generally yields a bell-shaped relationship establishing maximum CO2 production at moderate soil moisture, ignores anaerobic processes as a potential source of CO2. To decouple the effects of soil moisture and O2, we conducted a factorial batch experiment by incubating soil samples at different imposed moisture contents (30%, 45%, 65%, 80%, and 100% water-filled pore space; WFPS) at 25 degrees C, under both oxic (normal air) and anoxic (N2 atmosphere) headspace conditions. Gas fluxes measured in the oxic incubations show that CO2 fluxes were maximal (31.2 +/- 1.8 nmol cm-3 soil hr-1) at moderate moisture content (65% WFPS), as commonly reported. However, contrary to previous models that predict negligible CO2 fluxes under fully saturated con-ditions due to O2 limitation, substantial fluxes of CO2 (18.1 +/- 2.2 nmol cm-3 soil hr-1) were measured at 100% WFPS. In the anoxic treatments, CO2 fluxes rose sharply when the moisture content exceeded 65% WFPS, with values at 100% saturation (21.8 +/- 2.2 nmol cm-3 soil hr-1), close to the corresponding fluxes in the oxic in-cubations. Methane (CH4) fluxes in the anoxic incubations increased over time, ultimately reaching parity with the CO2 fluxes at 100% WFPS. To reproduce the soil moisture dependence of the CO2 fluxes, we propose a kinetic model representing both aerobic and anaerobic CO2 production. Together, the gas flux measurements, porewater geochemistry data, and modeling results indicated that at soil moisture contents approaching saturation (>= 90%), anaerobic processes were the major source of CO2 in the oxic incubations. Overall, we conclude that existing models may underrepresent soil CO2 production at high soil moisture by not considering anaerobic reaction pathways releasing CO2.

Automated summary

Soil moisture is an important variable in predicting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Previous studies have focused on aerobic respiration as the source of CO2, ignoring anaerobic processes. This study conducted experiments at different moisture levels under both oxic and anoxic conditions. The results showed that moderate moisture levels resulted in maximum CO2 fluxes, but substantial CO2 fluxes were also measured at fully saturated conditions. Methane (CH4) fluxes increased over time in anoxic conditions. A kinetic model was proposed to represent both aerobic and anaerobic CO2 production. This study highlights the importance of considering anaerobic reaction pathways in predicting soil CO2 production at high moisture levels.