Effects of warming and increased precipitation on soil carbon mineralization in an Inner Mongolian grassland after 6 years of treatments
Author(s)
Zhou, Xiaoqi
Chen, Chengrong
Wang, Yanfen
Xu, Zhihong
Hu, Zhengyi
Cui, Xiaoyong
Hao, Yanbin
Year published
2012
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Understanding the responses of soil C mineralization to climate change is critical for evaluating soil C cycling in future climatic scenarios. Here, we took advantage of a multifactor experiment to investigate the individual and combined effects of experimental warming and increased precipitation on soil C mineralization and 13C and 15N natural abundances at two soil depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm) in a semiarid Inner Mongolian grassland since April 2005. For each soil sample, we calculated potentially mineralizable organic C (C 0) from cumulative CO2-C evolved as indicators for labile organic C. The experimental warming significantly ...
View more >Understanding the responses of soil C mineralization to climate change is critical for evaluating soil C cycling in future climatic scenarios. Here, we took advantage of a multifactor experiment to investigate the individual and combined effects of experimental warming and increased precipitation on soil C mineralization and 13C and 15N natural abundances at two soil depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm) in a semiarid Inner Mongolian grassland since April 2005. For each soil sample, we calculated potentially mineralizable organic C (C 0) from cumulative CO2-C evolved as indicators for labile organic C. The experimental warming significantly decreased soil C mineralization and C 0 at the 10-20-cm depth (P?<?0.05). Increased precipitation, however, significantly increased soil pH, NO 3 - -N content, soil C mineralization, and C 0 at the 0-10-cm depth and moisture and NO 3 - -N content at the 10-20-cm depth (all P?<?0.05), while significantly decreased exchangeable NH 4 + -N content and 13C natural abundances at the two depths (both P?<?0.05). There were significant warming and increased precipitation interactions on soil C mineralization and C 0, indicating that multifactor interactions should be taken into account in future climatic scenarios. Significantly negative correlations were found between soil C mineralization, C 0, and 13C natural abundances across the treatments (both P?<?0.05), implying more plant-derived C input into the soils under increased precipitation. Overall, our results showed that experimental warming and increased precipitation exerted different influences on soil C mineralization, which may have significant implications for C cycling in response to climate change in semiarid and arid regions.
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View more >Understanding the responses of soil C mineralization to climate change is critical for evaluating soil C cycling in future climatic scenarios. Here, we took advantage of a multifactor experiment to investigate the individual and combined effects of experimental warming and increased precipitation on soil C mineralization and 13C and 15N natural abundances at two soil depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm) in a semiarid Inner Mongolian grassland since April 2005. For each soil sample, we calculated potentially mineralizable organic C (C 0) from cumulative CO2-C evolved as indicators for labile organic C. The experimental warming significantly decreased soil C mineralization and C 0 at the 10-20-cm depth (P?<?0.05). Increased precipitation, however, significantly increased soil pH, NO 3 - -N content, soil C mineralization, and C 0 at the 0-10-cm depth and moisture and NO 3 - -N content at the 10-20-cm depth (all P?<?0.05), while significantly decreased exchangeable NH 4 + -N content and 13C natural abundances at the two depths (both P?<?0.05). There were significant warming and increased precipitation interactions on soil C mineralization and C 0, indicating that multifactor interactions should be taken into account in future climatic scenarios. Significantly negative correlations were found between soil C mineralization, C 0, and 13C natural abundances across the treatments (both P?<?0.05), implying more plant-derived C input into the soils under increased precipitation. Overall, our results showed that experimental warming and increased precipitation exerted different influences on soil C mineralization, which may have significant implications for C cycling in response to climate change in semiarid and arid regions.
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Journal Title
Biology and Fertility of Soils
Volume
48
Issue
7
Subject
Environmental sciences
Carbon sequestration science
Biological sciences
Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences