Aboveground litter contribution to soil respiration in a subalpine dragon spruce plantation of western Sichuan

Abstract

Total soil respiration is the sum of all carbon dioxide effluxes originating from litter, soil organic matter and roots, controlled by soil biological activity and environmental drivers such as soil temperature, air temperature, water content and photosynthetically active radiation. Aboveground litter is a key factor controlling soil carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems as well as a very important part of the soil respiration. Because autotrophic and heterotrophic activity belowground is controlled by substrate availability, soil respiration is strongly linked to litterfall. For example, the amount of litter and its decomposition rate greatly affect the formation of soil organic matter and the supply of plant nutrients. Additionally, aboveground litter can directly and / or indirectly affect soil respiration via influencing other factors (e.g., soil water, soil temperature and microorganism). Dragon spruce plantations are mainly distributed in the subalpine and alpine forests of western Sichuan. In general, there is large amount of litter pool under the dragon spruce plantation. Therefore, the aboveground litter could have considerable contribution to total soil respiration in the plantation. Our objective of this study was to determine the contribution of aboveground litter to total CO 2 efflux in a subalpine dragon spruce plantation of western Sichuan. In order to evaluate the contribution of aboveground litter to total soil respiration, litter removal experiment was

Immediate and carry-over effects of increased soil frost on soil respiration and microbial activity in a spruce forest

“…Lastly, the flux of CO2 derived from decaying litter accounts for a considerable part of total soil respiration during winter (Uchida et al, 2005). CO2 flux derived from aboveground litter accounts for an average of 14.2% of total soil respiration in this spruce-forest stand (Xiong et al, 2015). In a previous study we also found that the mass loss of spruce needles over the winter constituted 18.3-28.8% of the net loss rates for the entire year (Xu et al, 2016).…”