Seasonal variation of soil respiration and its main regulating factors in a secondary oak forest and a pine plantation in north-subtropical area in China
Abstract:Soil respiration is an important component in carbon cycle of the terrestrial ecosystem. With global warming, the temporal and spatial variability of soil respiration and its sensitivity to temperature has been a central interest to ecologist in global change field. The seasonal variation of soil respiration was measured monthly by LI-6400-09 in a secondary oak forest and a pine plantation in an experiment with randomized block design from October, 2003 to September, 2005 in Xiashu Forest Experimental Site of Nanjing Forestry University, Jiangsu Province, Southeastern China. The results showed that: (1) There were significant seasonal variation of soil respiration both in oak forest and pine plantation, which were lowest in January with lowest soil temperature, and with the soil temperature increasing from January to July, soil respiration increased correspondingly and peaked in July or August, and then decreased progressively. (2) The monthly mean of soil respiration ranged from 0.271 to 3.22μmolCO2·m-2·s-1 in oak forest and ranged from 0.336 to 3.06μmolCO2·m-2·s-1 in pine plantation, respectively. (3) The Q10 value of soil respiration ranged from 2.19 to 2.27 in oak forest and ranged from 2.02 to 2.15 in pine plantation, respectively. Moreover, the Q10 value in oak forest was higher than in pine plantation. (4)The soil respiration were significantly positively correlated with soil temperature, and significantly negatively correlated with soil microbial biomass, but no correlation with soil moisture or plant litterfall. Our results suggested that there were significant seasonal variation of soil respiration in sub-tropical area in Southeastern China and soil temperature was the main regulating factors.