Abstract:To investigate the effects of soil temperature and soil moisture on soil respiration, we measured soil respiration rates of a revegetated area and a shifting sand area in the Tengger Desert using the Li-6400-09 soil respiration chamber technique. Results showed that: (1) soil respiration rates remained low at nighttime and exhibited a single-peak curve at daytime from April to October, and compare to the shifting sand area, a remarkable seasonal variation occured in the revegeteated area; (2) soil respiration rate was linearly correlated with volumetric soil moisture in the 0-5 cm layer, and a more significant correlation was obtained in the revegetated area than in the shifting sand area (R2=0.27, p<0.01, revegetated area; R2=0.10, p=0.03, shifting sand area). In addition, when the volumetric soil moisture was higher than its mean value during the experiment period (6.78% for revegetated area; 6.94% for shifting sand area), soil respiration rates were distinctly higher than when the volumetric soil moisture was belowed the mean value, with the ratios between them were 2.6 and 1.6 for the revegetated area and the shifting sand area, respectively; (3) an exponential model can be used to describe the relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature at depth of 5 cm. The calculated Q10 values were 1.23 and 1.43 when the soil moisture was lower than its mean value, and 2.23 and 1.72 when it was higher than its mean values for the revegetated area and the shifting sand area, respectively. Thus, we conclude that the soil moisture affects not only the soil respiration rates, but also the sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature in the Tengger Desert