Open Access
ARTICLE
Seasonal Changes in Soil Respiration with An Elevation Gradient in Abies nephrolepis (Trautv.) Maxim. Forests in North China
Zhijie Tian1,*, Xueying Jia2, Tingting Liu1, Eryan Ma1, Lamei Xue1, Yanqiu Hu1, Qingrong Zheng1
1
Xinzhou Teachers University, Xinzhou, 034000, China
2
School of Geography Science, Taiyuan Normal University, Taiyuan, 030619, China
* Corresponding Author: Zhijie Tian. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: The Effect of Soil Quality Degradation on the Plant Growth, Quality and Food Safety in Subtropical Agroforestry Ecosystems)
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2022, 91(7), 1543-1556. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.020329
Received 17 November 2021; Accepted 24 December 2021; Issue published 14 March 2022
Abstract
Soil respiration (Rs) plays an important role in regulating carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystems and presents temporal and spatial heterogeneity.
Abies nephrolepis is a tree species that prefers the cold and wet environment and is
mainly distributed in Northeast Asia and East Asia. The Rs variations of
Abies nephrolepis forests communities
are generally environmental-sensitive and can effectively reflect the adaptive responses of forest ecosystems to
climate change. In this study, the growing-seasonal variations of Rs, soil temperature, soil water content and soil
properties of
Abies nephrolepis forests were analyzed along an altitude gradient (2000, 2100, 2200 and 2300 m)
over two years on Wutai Mountain in North China. As the main results showed, soil respiration keeps the same
change trend as soil temperature and reached peaks in July at 2000 m in 2019 and 2020. During 26
th July to 25
th
October in 2019 and 27
th May to 23
rd October in 2020, on the whole, the soil temperature independently
explained 76.2% of Rs variations while the soil water content independently explained 26.8%. Soil temperature
and soil water content jointly explained 81.8% of Rs variations. Soil properties explained 61.8% and 69.6% of
Rs variation in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Soil organic carbon content and soil enzyme activity had the signifi-
cant (
P < 0.01) negative and positive relationships, respectively, with Rs variation. With altitudes evaluated from
2000 to 2300 m, soil respiration temperature sensitivity (Q
10) and the soil organic carbon content increased by
12.4% and 10.4%, respectively, while invertase activity, cellulase activity and urease activity dropped by 41.2%,
29.45% and 38.19%, respectively. The results demonstrate that (1) soil temperature is the major factor affecting
Rs variations in
Abies nephrolepis forests; (2) weakened microbial carbon metabolism in high-altitude areas results
in the accumulation of soil organic carbon; (3) with a higher Q
1, forest ecosystems in high-altitude areas might
be more easily affected by climate change; (4) climate warming might accelerate the consumption of soil organic
carbon sink in forest ecosystems, especially in high-altitude areas.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Tian, Z., Jia, X., Liu, T., Ma, E., Xue, L. et al. (2022). Seasonal Changes in Soil Respiration with An Elevation Gradient in
Abies nephrolepis (Trautv.) Maxim. Forests in North China.
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, 91(7), 1543–1556.