Soil respiration of a Moso bamboo forest significantly affected by gross ecosystem productivity and leaf area index in an extreme drought event

Yuli Liu; Guomo Zhou; Huaqiang Du; Frank Berninger; Fangjie Mao; Xuejian Li; Liang Chen; Lu Cui; Yangguang Li; Di'en Zhu

doi:10.7717/peerj.5747

Soil respiration of a Moso bamboo forest significantly affected by gross ecosystem productivity and leaf area index in an extreme drought event

PeerJ. 2018 Oct 31:6:e5747. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5747. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Yuli Liu^{1

2

3}, Guomo Zhou^{1

2

3}, Huaqiang Du^{1

2

3}, Frank Berninger^{2

4}, Fangjie Mao^{1

2

3}, Xuejian Li^{1

2

3}, Liang Chen^{1

2

3}, Lu Cui^{1

2

3}, Yangguang Li^{1

2

3}, Di'en Zhu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, Lin'an, Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, China.
² Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, Lin'an, Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, China.
³ School of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, Lin'an, Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, China.
⁴ Department of Forest Ecology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Moso bamboo has large potential to alleviate global warming through carbon sequestration. Since soil respiration (R _s ) is a major source of CO₂ emissions, we analyzed the dynamics of soil respiration (R _s ) and its relation to environmental factors in a Moso bamboo (Phllostachys heterocycla cv. pubescens) forest to identify the relative importance of biotic and abiotic drivers of respiration. Annual average R _s was 44.07 t CO₂ ha^-1 a^-1. R _s correlated significantly with soil temperature (P < 0.01), which explained 69.7% of the variation in R _s at a diurnal scale. Soil moisture was correlated significantly with R _s on a daily scale except not during winter, indicating it affected R _s . A model including both soil temperature and soil moisture explained 93.6% of seasonal variations in R _s . The relationship between R _s and soil temperature during a day showed a clear hysteresis. R _s was significantly and positively (P < 0.01) related to gross ecosystem productivity and leaf area index, demonstrating the significance of biotic factors as crucial drivers of R _s .

Keywords: Environmental determiners; Gross ecosystem productivity; Leaf area index; Moso bamboo forest; Soil respiration.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670644, 31370637), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LR14C160001), 973 Program of China (2011CB302705), Fund of State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture (ZY20180201), Joint Research fund of Department of Forestry of Zhejiang Province and Chinese Academy of Forestry (No. 2017SY04), Zhejiang Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for Bamboo Resources and High-efficiency Utilization, the Key Science and Technology Projects of Zhejiang Province (2015C03008), and the Key Discipline of Forestry of Creative Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (201510). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.