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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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Characterizing the Atmospheric Mn Cycle and Its Impact on Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
Abstract The role of manganese (Mn) in ecosystem carbon (C) biogeochemical cycling is gaining increasing attention. While soil Mn is mainly derived from bedrock, atmospheric deposition could be a major source of Mn to surface soils, with implications for soil C cycling. However, quantification of the atmospheric Mn cycle, which comprises emissions from natural (desert dust, sea salts, volcanoes, primary biogenic particles, and wildfires) and anthropogenic sources (e.g., industrialization and land‐use change due to agriculture), transport, and deposition, remains uncertain. Here, we use compiled emission data sets for each identified source to model and quantify the atmospheric Mn cycle by combining an atmospheric model and in situ atmospheric concentration measurements. We estimated global emissions of atmospheric Mn in aerosols (<10 μm in aerodynamic diameter) to be 1,400 Gg Mn year−1. Approximately 31% of the emissions come from anthropogenic sources. Deposition of the anthropogenic Mn shortened Mn “pseudo” turnover times in 1‐m‐thick surface soils (ranging from 1,000 to over 10,000,000 years) by 1–2 orders of magnitude in industrialized regions. Such anthropogenic Mn inputs boosted the Mn‐to‐N ratio of the atmospheric deposition in non‐desert dominated regions (between 5 × 10−5and 0.02) across industrialized areas, but that was still lower than soil Mn‐to‐N ratio by 1–3 orders of magnitude. Correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between Mn deposition and topsoil C density across temperate and (sub)tropical forests, consisting with atmospheric Mn deposition enhancing carbon respiration as seen in in situ biogeochemical studies.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2215875
- PAR ID:
- 10534522
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Volume:
- 38
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0886-6236
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GB007967
