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The turnover of carbon pools contributing to soil CO 2 and soil respiration in a temperate forest exposed to elevated CO 2 concentration
Author(s) -
TANEVA LINA,
PIPPEN JEFFREY S.,
SCHLESINGER WILLIAM H.,
GONZALEZMELER MIQUEL A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01147.x
Subject(s) - soil respiration , environmental science , temperate forest , fumigation , soil carbon , terrestrial ecosystem , ecosystem , environmental chemistry , carbon cycle , soil water , soil science , chemistry , agronomy , ecology , biology
Soil carbon is returned to the atmosphere through the process of soil respiration, which represents one of the largest fluxes in the terrestrial C cycle. The effects of climate change on the components of soil respiration can affect the sink or source capacity of ecosystems for atmospheric carbon, but no current techniques can unambiguously separate soil respiration into its components. Long‐term free air CO 2 enrichment (FACE) experiments provide a unique opportunity to study soil C dynamics because the CO 2 used for fumigation has a distinct isotopic signature and serves as a continuous label at the ecosystem level. We used the 13 C tracer at the Duke Forest FACE site to follow the disappearance of C fixed before fumigation began in 1996 (pretreatment C) from soil CO 2 and soil‐respired CO 2 , as an index of belowground C dynamics during the first 8 years of the experiment. The decay of pretreatment C as detected in the isotopic composition of soil‐respired CO 2 and soil CO 2 at 15, 30, 70, and 200 cm soil depth was best described by a model having one to three exponential pools within the soil system. The majority of soil‐respired CO 2 (71%) originated in soil C pools with a turnover time of about 35 days. About 55%, 50%, and 68% of soil CO 2 at 15, 30, and 70 cm, respectively, originated in soil pools with turnover times of less than 1 year. The rest of soil CO 2 and soil‐respired CO 2 originated in soil pools that turn over at decadal time scales. Our results suggest that a large fraction of the C returned to the atmosphere through soil respiration results from dynamic soil C pools that cannot be easily detected in traditionally defined soil organic matter standing stocks. Fast oxidation of labile C substrates may prevent increases in soil C accumulation in forests exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] and may consequently result in shorter ecosystem C residence times.