Effects of precipitation pulses on water and carbon dioxide fluxes in two semiarid ecosystems: measurement and modeling

Soil respiration patterns for four major land-use types of the agro-pastoral region of northern China

“…This is in agreement with findings from other studies (Fan et al, 2012;Priemé and Christensen, 2001;Sainju et al, 2010;Sponseller, 2007;Wu et al, Fig. 5.…”

“…The annual precipitation during our study period was 417 mm and for the growing season was 336 mm, which is greater than these other studies and may have increased R s . This is consistent with the findings of Fan et al (2012) who reported that increases in precipitation or irrigation could increase R s in semi-arid ecosystems. Furthermore, the measurements in our study used the dynamic closed chamber technique with a high frequency of measurements during the year compared to these other studies, which only measured R s infrequently during the growing season or used static chamber/alkaline methods, which could underestimate annual cumulative R s .…”

“…Land degradation is a serious concern in this region because of rapid population growth, which has markedly increased demands on grasslands and croplands for food production (Zhao et al, 2002). Previous studies of R s in northern China have primarily focused on ungrazed grasslands (Fan et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2010) and the influence of grassland management practices such as grazing (Chen et al, 2013;Holst et al, 2008) and fencing (Wu et al, 2010) on R s . Not many studies have addressed how the conversion of grassland to perennial pastures and croplands affects R s .…”

Importance of Early Season Conditions and Grazing on Carbon Dioxide Fluxes in Colorado Shortgrass Steppe

“…Pulses of intense CO 2 evolution observed in certain years (2000 Fig. 6D) indicate occasional high metabolic activity of the SGS biota, often due to precipitation events (Austin et al, 2004;Parton et al, 2011;Fan et al, 2012).…”

Consequences of Changing Precipitation Patterns for Ecosystem Functioning in Grasslands: A Review

“…In relation to belowground activity, a rapid increase in soil CO 2 efflux following precipitation pulses has been observed in various ecosystems (Mariko et al 2007;Chen et al 2009;Unger et al 2010;Fan et al 2012;Jongen et al 2013a). This phenomenon of increased carbon and nitrogen losses after rewetting of dry soils, commonly termed 'Birch effect', has become an important subject in ecological studies.…”