Effects of warming and rainfall pulses on soil respiration in a biological soil crust-dominated desert ecosystem

Impact of Environmental Factors and Biological Soil Crust Types on Soil Respiration in a Desert Ecosystem

The responses of soil respiration to environmental conditions have been studied extensively in various ecosystems. However, little is known about the impacts of temperature and moisture on soils respiration under biological soil crusts. In this study, CO2 efflux from biologically-crusted soils was measured continuously with an automated chamber system in Ningxia, northwest China, from June to O...

Soil moisture modifies the response f soil respiration to temperature in a desert shrub ecosystem

Effects of Soil Warming and Nitrogen Addition on Soil Respiration in a New Zealand Tussock Grassland

Soil respiration (RS) represents a large terrestrial source of CO2 to the atmosphere. Global change drivers such as climate warming and nitrogen deposition are expected to alter the terrestrial carbon cycle with likely consequences for RS and its components, autotrophic (RA) and heterotrophic respiration (RH). Here we investigate the impacts of a 3°C soil warming treatment and a 50 kg ha(-1) y(...

Contrasting diel hysteresis between soil autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration in a desert ecosystem under different rainfall scenarios

Diel hysteresis occurs often between soil CO2 efflux (R(S)) and temperature, yet, little is known if diel hysteresis occurs in the two components of R(S), i.e., autotrophic respiration (R(A)) and heterotrophic respiration (R(H)), and how diel hysteresis will respond to future rainfall change. We conducted a field experiment in a desert ecosystem in northern China simulating five different scena...

Rapidly restoring biological soil crusts and ecosystem functions in a severely disturbed desert ecosystem.

Restoring biological soil crusts (biocrusts) in degraded drylands can contribute to recovery of ecosystem functions that have global implications, including erosion resistance and nutrient cycling. To examine techniques for restoring biocrusts, we conducted a replicated, factorial experiment on recently abandoned road surfaces by applying biocrust inoculation (salvaged and stored dry for two ye...