Elsevier

Pedosphere

Volume 25, Issue 4, August 2015, Pages 512-523
Pedosphere

Soil Organic Carbon Mineralization as Affected by Cyclical Temperature Fluctuations in a Karst Region of Southwestern China

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(15)30032-1Get rights and content

Abstract

The diurnal fluctuation in soil temperature may influence soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization, but there is no consensus on SOC mineralization response to the cyclical fluctuation in soil temperature. A 56-d incubation experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of constant and variable temperatures on SOC mineralization. Three soils were collected from the karst region in western Guizhou Province, southwestern China, including a limestone soil under forest, a limestone soil under crops and a yellow soil under crops. According to the World Reference Base (WRB) classification, the two limestone soils were classified as Haplic Luvisols and the yellow soil as a Dystric Luvisol. These soils were incubated at three constant temperatures (15, 20 and 25 0C) and cyclically fluctuating temperatures (diurnal cycle between 15 and 25 0C). The results showed that the 56-d cumulative SOC mineralized (C56) at the fluctuating temperatures was between those at constant 15 and 25 0C, suggesting that the cumulative SOC mineralization was restricted by temperature range. The SOC mineralization responses to the fluctuating temperatures were different among the three soils, especially in contrast to those at constant 20 0C. Compared with constant 20 0C, significant (P < 0.05) decreases and increases in C56 value were found in the limestone soil under forest and yellow soil under crops at the fluctuating temperatures, respectively. At the fluctuating temperatures, the forest soil with lower temperature coefficient Q10 (the relative change in SOC mineralization rate as a result of increasing the temperature by 10 0C) had a significantly (P < 0.05) lower SOC mineralization intensity than the two cropland soils. These indicated that differences in temperature pattern (constant or fluctuating) could significantly influence SOC mineralization, and SOC mineralization responses to the fluctuating temperatures might be affected by soil characteristics. Moreover, the warmer temperatures might improve the ability of soil microbes to decompose the recalcitrant SOC fraction, and cyclical fluctuations in temperature could influence SOC mineralization through changing the labile SOC pool size and the mineralization rate of the recalcitrant SOC in soils.

References (55)

  • X J Ouyang et al.

    Effect of N and P addition on soil organic C potential mineralization in forest soils in South China

    J Environ Sci

    (2008)
  • M Reichstein et al.

    Temperature dependence of carbon mineralisation: conclusions from a long-term incubation of subalpine soil samples

    Soil Biol Biochem

    (2000)
  • A Saviozzi et al.

    Carbon mineralization kinetics in soils under urban environment

    Appl Soil Ecol

    (2014)
  • M Schütt et al.

    Temperature sensitivity of C and N mineralization in temperate forest soils at low temperatures

    Soil Biol Biochem

    (2014)
  • X Z Shi et al.

    Cross-reference for relating Genetic Soil Classification of China with WRB at different scales

    Geoderma

    (2010)
  • E D Vance et al.

    An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C

    Soil Biol Biochem

    (1987)
  • P Vanhala et al.

    Temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition in southern and northern areas of the boreal forest zone

    Soil Biol Biochem

    (2008)
  • X W Wang et al.

    Effect of temperature and moisture on soil organic carbon mineralization of predominantly permafrost peatland in the Great Hing'an Mountains, Northeastern China

    J Environ Sci

    (2010)
  • B Zhu et al.

    Constant and diurnally-varying temperature regimes lead to different temperature sensitivities of soil organic carbon decomposition

    Soil Biol Biochem

    (2011)
  • R Alvarez et al.

    Soil organic carbon, microbial biomass and CO2-C production from three tillage systems

    Soil Till Res

    (1995)
  • G Bárcenas-Moreno et al.

    Adaptation of soil microbial communities to temperature: comparison of fungi and bacteria in a laboratory experiment

    Glob Change Biol

    (2009)
  • J M Bremner et al.

    Nitrogen—total

  • H F Castro et al.

    Soil microbial community responses to multiple experimental climate change drivers

    Appl Environ Microb

    (2010)
  • Z X Chi et al.

    Regionalization of the climate suitability on spring potato planting in western Guizhou based on GIS

    Chinese J Agrometeorol (in Chinese)

    (2012)
  • R T Conant et al.

    Sensitivity of organic matter decomposition to warming varies with its quality

    Glob Change Biol

    (2008)
  • R T Conant et al.

    Temperature and soil organic matter decomposition rates—synthesis of current knowledge and a way forward

    Glob Change Biol

    (2011)
  • C Fang et al.

    Similar response of labile and resistant soil organic matter pools to changes in temperature

    Nature

    (2005)
  • Cited by (34)

    • Priming of soil organic carbon mineralization and its temperature sensitivity in response to vegetation restoration in a karst area of Southwest China

      2022, Science of the Total Environment
      Citation Excerpt :

      Overall, strong linkages were detected between the changes in soil properties of different vegetation types and the response to cumulative SOC mineralization and Cm/SOC. Our results are in accordance with other studies (Ci et al., 2015; Fanin et al., 2020; Guttières et al., 2021), highlighting the importance of vegetation succession in C sequestration in this karst region. A previous study showed that vegetation restoration accelerated SOC accumulation and increased the C/N ratio, which may account for the lower magnitude of SOC decomposition (Zhang et al., 2021b), which is in agreement with our results (Table 1; Fig. 1E, F).

    • The effects of shallow flooding on carbon mineralization in a paddy soil: Constraints observed with the addition of straw

      2022, Applied Soil Ecology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Many previous research studies have confirmed that temperature and moisture levels are important environmental factors affecting soil C mineralization (Li et al., 2005; Conant et al., 2008; Arnold et al., 2015). Many studies have shown that a significant positive correlation exists between soil temperature and soil C mineralization (Kirschbaum, 1995; Ci et al., 2015; Hou et al., 2016), yet the relationship between soil moisture levels and soil C mineralization remains unclear (Craine and Gelderman, 2011; Ge et al., 2012; von Haden and Dornbush, 2014). Some studies have shown the role of physical processes (transport, aggregate dynamics), microbial physiological processes (osmoregulation, dormancy), and community dynamics etc., as drivers of mineralization under different soil moistures (Rabbi et al., 2014; Jones et al., 2019; Yu et al., 2020).

    • Modelling dynamic soil organic carbon flows of annual and perennial energy crops to inform energy-transport policy scenarios in France

      2020, Science of the Total Environment
      Citation Excerpt :

      Several physical and biochemical mechanisms may influence the decomposition rate, and these mechanisms can be in turn influenced by management (e.g. to increase C sequestration) (Wiesmeier et al., 2019; Zomer et al., 2017). In general, SOC models take into consideration soil temperature, water, and clay content; as main drivers for changes in C stocks (Bockstaller and Girardin, 2010; Ci et al., 2015; FAO, 2017; Han et al., 2018; Zhong et al., 2018). They are usually based on the assumption that SOM decomposes following first order kinetics (Luo et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2012), initially proposed in the 1945 pioneering model from Hénin and Dupuis (Hénin and Dupuis, 1945; Shibu et al., 2006), where the decomposition rate constant corresponds to the pedoclimatic condition-dependent annual mineralisation rate.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text