TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential responses of ecosystem respiration components to experimental warming in a meadow grassland on the Tibetan Plateau
AU - Chen, Ji
AU - Luo, Yiqi
AU - Xia, Jianyang
AU - Shi, Zheng
AU - Jiang, Lifen
AU - Niu, Shuli
AU - Zhou, Xuhui
AU - Cao, Junji
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Ministry of Science & Technology ( 2012BAH31B03 ) and the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology , Institute of Earth Environment of Chinese Academy of Sciences via Grant SKLLQG1303 . The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from China Scholarship Council (award for one year's study abroad at the University of Oklahoma). Contributions from Dr. Luo's Eco-lab to this study was financially supported by US Department of Energy , Terrestrial Ecosystem Sciences grant DE SC0008270 and US National Science Foundation (NSF) grant DBI 0850290, EPS0919466 , DEB 0743778> , DEB 0840964> and EF 1137293 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/4/15
Y1 - 2016/4/15
N2 - Global warming is anticipated to have profound effects on terrestrial carbon fluxes and thus feed backs to future climate change. Ecosystem respiration (Reco) is one of the dominant components of biosphere CO2 fluxes, but the effects of warming on Reco are still unclear. A field warming experiment using open top chambers (OTCs) was conducted in a meadow grassland on the Tibetan Plateau to study the effects of warming on the components of Reco. Warming significantly enhanced above-ground plant respiration (Ragb) and total autotrophic plant respiration (Rplant) by 28.7% and 19.9%, respectively, but reduced heterotrophic respiration (Rh) by 10.4%. These different responses resulted in the insensitive responses of Reco and soil respiration (Rs) to the experimental warming. The warming treatment also increased Rplant/Reco and Ragb/Reco by 8.4% and 17.3%, respectively, while decreasing Rh/Reco by 19.0%, suggesting that warming could eventually cause Reco to be dominated by Rplant. Enhancements in Rplant and Ragb were related to the warming-induced increases in aboveground biomass (AGB) while reduced Rh was closely coupled with warming-induced decrease of microbial biomass carbon. Our results highlight that the differential responses of the components of Reco to different environmental physics under warming scenarios should be taken into consideration to project the future carbon-climate feed backs.
AB - Global warming is anticipated to have profound effects on terrestrial carbon fluxes and thus feed backs to future climate change. Ecosystem respiration (Reco) is one of the dominant components of biosphere CO2 fluxes, but the effects of warming on Reco are still unclear. A field warming experiment using open top chambers (OTCs) was conducted in a meadow grassland on the Tibetan Plateau to study the effects of warming on the components of Reco. Warming significantly enhanced above-ground plant respiration (Ragb) and total autotrophic plant respiration (Rplant) by 28.7% and 19.9%, respectively, but reduced heterotrophic respiration (Rh) by 10.4%. These different responses resulted in the insensitive responses of Reco and soil respiration (Rs) to the experimental warming. The warming treatment also increased Rplant/Reco and Ragb/Reco by 8.4% and 17.3%, respectively, while decreasing Rh/Reco by 19.0%, suggesting that warming could eventually cause Reco to be dominated by Rplant. Enhancements in Rplant and Ragb were related to the warming-induced increases in aboveground biomass (AGB) while reduced Rh was closely coupled with warming-induced decrease of microbial biomass carbon. Our results highlight that the differential responses of the components of Reco to different environmental physics under warming scenarios should be taken into consideration to project the future carbon-climate feed backs.
KW - Ecosystem respiration
KW - Experimental warming
KW - Heterotrophic respiration
KW - Soil respiration
KW - Tibetan Plateau
KW - Total autotrophic respiration
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U2 - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.01.010
DO - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.01.010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84954470026
SN - 0168-1923
VL - 220
SP - 21
EP - 29
JO - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
JF - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
ER -