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Title: Ecosystem Scale Implication of Soil CO 2 Concentration Dynamics During Soil Freezing in Alaskan Arctic Tundra Ecosystems
Award ID(s):
1932900 1702797
NSF-PAR ID:
10276885
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
Volume:
126
Issue:
5
ISSN:
2169-8953
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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  1. Abstract

    Warming‐induced changes in precipitation regimes, coupled with anthropogenically enhanced nitrogen (N) deposition, are likely to increase the prevalence, duration, and magnitude of soil respiration pulses following wetting via interactions among temperature and carbon (C) and N availability. Quantifying the importance of these interactive controls on soil respiration is a key challenge as pulses can be large terrestrial sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) over comparatively short timescales. Using an automated sensor system, we measured soil CO2flux dynamics in the Colorado Desert—a system characterized by pronounced transitions from dry‐to‐wet soil conditions—through a multi‐year series of experimental wetting campaigns. Experimental manipulations included combinations of C and N additions across a range of ambient temperatures and across five sites varying in atmospheric N deposition. We found soil CO2pulses following wetting were highly predictable from peak instantaneous CO2flux measurements. CO2pulses consistently increased with temperature, and temperature at time of wetting positively correlated to CO2pulse magnitude. Experimentally adding N along the N deposition gradient generated contrasting pulse responses: adding N increased CO2pulses in low N deposition sites, whereas adding N decreased CO2pulses in high N deposition sites. At a low N deposition site, simultaneous additions of C and N during wetting led to the highest observed soil CO2fluxes reported globally at 299.5 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1. Our results suggest that soils have the capacity to emit high amounts of CO2within small timeframes following infrequent wetting, and pulse sizes reflect a non‐linear combination of soil resource and temperature interactions. Importantly, the largest soil CO2emissions occurred when multiple resources were amended simultaneously in historically resource‐limited desert soils, pointing to regions experiencing simultaneous effects of desertification and urbanization as key locations in future global C balance.

     
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  2. null (Ed.)
    Terrestrial ecosystems are increasingly enriched with resources such as atmospheric CO 2 that limit ecosystem processes. The consequences for ecosystem carbon cycling depend on the feedbacks from other limiting resources and plant community change, which remain poorly understood for soil CO 2 efflux, J CO2 , a primary carbon flux from the biosphere to the atmosphere. We applied a unique CO 2 enrichment gradient (250 to 500 µL L −1 ) for eight years to grassland plant communities on soils from different landscape positions. We identified the trajectory of J CO2 responses and feedbacks from other resources, plant diversity [effective species richness, exp(H)], and community change (plant species turnover). We found linear increases in J CO2 on an alluvial sandy loam and a lowland clay soil, and an asymptotic increase on an upland silty clay soil. Structural equation modeling identified CO 2 as the dominant limitation on J CO2 on the clay soil. In contrast with theory predicting limitation from a single limiting factor, the linear J CO2 response on the sandy loam was reinforced by positive feedbacks from aboveground net primary productivity and exp(H), while the asymptotic J CO2 response on the silty clay arose from a net negative feedback among exp(H), species turnover, and soil water potential. These findings support a multiple resource limitation view of the effects of global change drivers on grassland ecosystem carbon cycling and highlight a crucial role for positive or negative feedbacks between limiting resources and plant community structure. Incorporating these feedbacks will improve models of terrestrial carbon sequestration and ecosystem services. 
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