Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Precipitation Pattern Regulates Soil Carbon Flux Responses to Nitrogen Addition in a Temperate Forest

  • Published:
Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Changes in precipitation frequency and intensity are predicted to be more intense and frequent accompanying climate change and may have immediate or potentially prolonged effects on soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes. However, how soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes respond to change in precipitation patterns remains poorly understood, especially under nitrogen (N) addition. In this study, we investigated the fluxes of soil CO2 and CH4 during a two-year field experiment and the effects of long-time precipitation reduction (− 30% of through-fall), short-term precipitation pulse and change of snow thickness on their response to simulated N deposition (50 kg N hm−2 y−1). Soil CO2 flux was greater enhanced by N addition in the relatively wet growing season (2016) than in the relatively dry growing season (2017), whereas soil CH4 flux was more inhibited by N addition in the relatively wet growing season 2016 than in the relatively dry growing season 2017. However, reduced precipitation decreased the positive effect of N addition on soil CO2 flux in the relatively wet growing season 2016, while changing the direction of N addition effect in the relatively dry growing season 2017. These results suggested that the precipitation patterns in the growing season may affect soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes response to N addition. Furthermore, we found that short-term extreme precipitation and thickness of snow cover had a significantly positive effect on soil CH4 flux but had a significantly negative effect on soil CO2 flux. The extreme precipitation, that is, very heavy precipitation, reduced the response magnitudes of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes to reduced precipitation within 3 days, compared to wet precipitation and heavy precipitation. Our results indicated the significant effects of precipitation pattern changes on responses of soil C flux to N deposition, which should be incorporated into the global-C-cycling models to improve the prediction and reduce the uncertainty of C-climate feedbacks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aaltonen H, Lindén A, Heinonsalo J, Biasi C, Pumpanen J. 2017. Effects of prolonged drought stress on Scots pine seedling carbon allocation. Tree physiology 37:418–27.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aronson EL, Helliker BR. 2010. Methane flux in non-wetland soils in response to nitrogen addition: a meta-analysis. Ecology 91:3242–51.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aronson EL, Goulden ML, Allison SD. 2019. Greenhouse gas fluxes under drought and nitrogen addition in a Southern California grassland. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 131:19–27.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Aronson E, Allison S, Helliker BR. 2013. Environmental impacts on the diversity of methane-cycling microbes and their resultant function. Frontiers in microbiology 4:225.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Blanc-Betes E, Welker JM, Sturchio NC, Chanton JP, Gonzalez-Meler MA. 2016. Winter precipitation and snow accumulation drive the methane sink or source strength of Arctic tussock tundra. Global Change Biology 22:2818–33.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bodelier PL, Laanbroek HJ. 2004. Nitrogen as a regulatory factor of methane oxidation in soils and sediments. FEMS microbiology ecology 47:265–77.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bond-Lamberty B, Thomson A. 2010. Temperature-associated increases in the global soil respiration record. Nature 464:579.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Borken W, Davidson EA, Savage K, Sundquist ET, Steudler P. 2006. Effect of summer throughfall exclusion, summer drought, and winter snow cover on methane fluxes in a temperate forest soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38:1388–95.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Canarini A, Kiær LP, Dijkstra FA. 2017. Soil carbon loss regulated by drought intensity and available substrate: a meta-analysis. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 112:90–9.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carreiro MM, Sinsabaugh RL, Repert DA, Parkhurst DF. 2000. Microbial enzyme shifts explain litter decay responses to simulated nitrogen deposition. Ecology 81:2359–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen F, Yan G, Xing Y, Zhang J, Wang Q, Wang H, Liu T. 2019. Effects of N addition and precipitation reduction on soil respiration and its components in a temperate forest. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 271:336–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen H, Qualls RG, Miller GC. 2002. Adaptive responses of Lepidium latifolium to soil flooding: biomass allocation, adventitious rooting, aerenchyma formation and ethylene production. Environmental and Experimental Botany 48:119–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen W, Zheng X, Chen Q, Wolf B, Butterbach-Bahl K, Brüggemann N, Lin S. 2013. Effects of increasing precipitation and nitrogen deposition on CH4 and N2O fluxes and ecosystem respiration in a degraded steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. Geoderma 192:335–40.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Z, Xu Y, Zhou X, Tang J, Kuzyakov Y, Yu H, Ding W. 2017. Extreme rainfall and snowfall alter responses of soil respiration to nitrogen fertilization: a 3-year field experiment. Global Change Biology 23:3403–17.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen TR, Ekberg A, Ström L, Mastepanov M, Panikov N, Öquist M, Oskarsson H. 2003. Factors controlling large scale variations in methane emissions from wetlands. Geophysical Research Letters 30(7):3293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Contosta AR, Burakowski EA, Varner RK, Frey SD. 2016. Winter soil respiration in a humid temperate forest: The roles of moisture, temperature, and snowpack. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 121:3072–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cui X, Yue P, Gong Y, Li K, Tan D, Goulding K, Liu X. 2017. Impacts of water and nitrogen addition on nitrogen recovery in Haloxylon ammodendron dominated desert ecosystems. Science of the Total Environment 601:1280–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curry CL. 2007. Modeling the soil consumption of atmospheric methane at the global scale. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 21(4):146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Janssens IA. 2006. Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440:165.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Donat MG, Lowry AL, Alexander LV, O’Gorman PA, Maher N. 2016. More extreme precipitation in the world’s dry and wet regions. Nature Climate Change 6:508.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donat MG, Alexander LV, Yang H, Durre I, Vose R, Dunn RJH, Hewitson B. 2013. Updated analyses of temperature and precipitation extreme indices since the beginning of the twentieth century: The HadEX2 dataset. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118:2098–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falkowski P, Scholes RJ, Boyle EEA, Canadell J, Canfield D, Elser J, Mackenzie FT. 2000. The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of earth as a system. Science 290:291–6.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frank D, Reichstein M, Bahn M, Thonicke K, Frank D, Mahecha MD, Beer C. 2015. Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: concepts, processes and potential future impacts. Global Change Biology 21:2861–80.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Greaver TL, Clark CM, Compton JE, Vallano D, Talhelm AF, Weaver CP, Felker-Quinn E. 2016. Key ecological responses to nitrogen are altered by climate change. Nature Climate Change 6:836.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann AA, Buchmann N, Niklaus PA. 2011. A study of soil methane sink regulation in two grasslands exposed to drought and N fertilization. Plant and Soil 342:265–75.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hengl T, de Jesus JM, Heuvelink GBM, Gonzalez MR, Kilibarda M, Blagotić A, Shangguan W, Wright MN, Geng X, Bauer-Marschallinger B, Guevara M, Vargas R, MacMillan RA, Batjes NH, Leenaars JGB, Ribeiro E, Wheeler I, Mantel S, Kempen B. 2017. SoilGrids250m: Global gridded soil information based on machine learning. PLoS ONE 12(2):e0169748.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hursh A, Ballantyne A, Cooper L, Maneta M, Kimball J, Watts J. 2017. The sensitivity of soil respiration to soil temperature, moisture, and carbon supply at the global scale. Global Change Biology 23(5):2090–2103.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inglima I, Alberti G, Bertolini T, Vaccari FP, Gioli B, Miglietta F, Peressotti A. 2009. Precipitation pulses enhance respiration of Mediterranean ecosystems: the balance between organic and inorganic components of increased soil CO2 efflux. Global Change Biology 15:1289–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC. 2013. Summary for policymakers. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In: Climate Change 2013: the Physical Science Basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-30.

  • Janssens IA, Dieleman W, Luyssaert S, Subke JA, Reichstein M, Ceulemans R, Papale D. 2010. Reduction of forest soil respiration in response to nitrogen deposition. Nature Geoscience 3:315.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jassal RS, Black TA, Nesic Z, Gaumont-Guay D. 2012. Using automated non-steady-state chamber systems for making continuous long-term measurements of soil CO2 efflux in forest ecosystems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 161:57–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayler ZE, De Boeck HJ, Fatichi S, Grünzweig JM, Merbold L, Beier C, Dukes JS. 2015. Experiments to confront the environmental extremes of climate change. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13:219–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knapp AK, Beier C, Briske DD, Classen AT, Luo Y, Reichstein M, Heisler JL. 2008. Consequences of more extreme precipitation regimes for terrestrial ecosystems. Bioscience 58:811–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koide T, Saito H, Shirota T, Iwahana G, Lopezc ML, Maximov TC, Hatano R. 2010. Effects of changes in the soil environment associated with heavy precipitation on soil greenhouse gas fluxes in a Siberian larch forest near Yakutsk. Soil Science & Plant Nutrition 56:645–62.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Krause K, Niklaus PA, Schleppi P. 2013. Soil-atmosphere fluxes of the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4 and N2O in a mountain spruce forest subjected to long-term N addition and to tree girdling. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 181:61–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreuzwieser J, Gessler A. 2010. Global climate change and tree nutrition: influence of water availability. Tree Physiology 30:1221–34.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lagomarsino A, Agnelli AE, Pastorelli R, Pallara G, Rasse DP, Silvennoinen H. 2016. Past water management affected GHG production and microbial community pattern in Italian rice paddy soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 93:17–27.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Le Mer J, Roger P. 2001. Production, oxidation, emission and consumption of methane by soils: a review. European Journal of Soil Biology 37:25–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • LeBauer DS, Treseder KK. 2008. Nitrogen limitation of net primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems is globally distributed. Ecology 89:371–9.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li L, Zheng Z, Biederman JA, Xu C, Xu Z, Che R, Hao Y. 2019. Ecological responses to heavy rainfall depend on seasonal timing and multi-year recurrence. New Phytologist . https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15832.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li W, Jin C, Guan D, Wang Q, Wang A, Yuan F, Wu J. 2015. The effects of simulated nitrogen deposition on plant root traits: a meta-analysis. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 82:112–18.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu L, Wang X, Lajeunesse MJ, Miao G, Piao S, Wan S, Deng M. 2016. A cross-biome synthesis of soil respiration and its determinants under simulated precipitation changes. Global Change Biology 22:1394–405.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lü C, Tian H. 2007. Spatial and temporal patterns of nitrogen deposition in China: synthesis of observational data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 112(D22).

  • Lu X, Mao Q, Gilliam FS, Luo Y, Mo J. 2014. Nitrogen deposition contributes to soil acidification in tropical ecosystems. Global Change Biology 20:3790–801.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ma J, Wang ZY, Stevenson BA, Zheng XJ, Li Y. 2013. An inorganic CO2 diffusion and dissolution process explains negative CO2 fluxes in saline/alkaline soils. Scientific Reports 3:2025.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Maranon-Jimenez S, Castro J, Kowalski AS, Serrano-Ortiz P, Reverter BR, SanchezCanete EP, Zamora R. 2011. Post-fire soil respiration in relation to burnt wood management in a Mediterranean mountain ecosystem. Forest Ecology and Management 261:1436–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marzen M, Iserloh T, de Lima JL, Fister W, Ries JB. 2017. Impact of severe rain storms on soil erosion: Experimental evaluation of wind-driven rain and its implications for natural hazard management. Science of the Total Environment 590:502–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mbonimpa EG, Hong CO, Owens VN, Lehman RM, Osborne SL, Schumacher TE, Kumar S. 2015. Nitrogen fertilizer and landscape position impacts on CO2 and CH4 fluxes from a landscape seeded to switch grass. Gcb Bioenergy 7:836–49.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merbold L, Eugster W, Stieger J, Zahniser M, Nelson D, Buchmann N. 2014. Greenhouse gas budget (CO2, CH4 and N2O) of intensively managed grassland following restoration. Global Change Biology 20:1913–28.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moyano FE, Manzoni S, Chenu C. 2013. Responses of soil heterotrophic respiration to moisture availability: An exploration of processes and models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 59:72–85.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ni X, Liao S, Wu F, Groffman PM. 2019. Short-term precipitation pulses stimulate soil CO2 emission but do not alter CH4 and N2O fluxes in a northern hardwood forest. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 130:8–11.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ni X, Yang W, Qi Z, Liao S, Xu Z, Tan B, Wu F. 2017. Simple additive simulation overestimates real influence: altered nitrogen and rainfall modulate the effect of warming on soil carbon fluxes. Global Change Biology 23:3371–81.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pirk N, Tamstorf MP, Lund M, Mastepanov M, Pedersen SH, Mylius MR, Christensen TR. 2016. Snowpack fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide from high Arctic tundra. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 121:2886–900.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Poorter H, Niklas KJ, Reich PB, Oleksyn J, Poot P, Mommer L. 2012. Biomass allocation to leaves, stems and roots: meta-analyses of interspecific variation and environmental control. New Phytologist 193:30–50.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team. 2018. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. https://www.R-project.org/.

  • Sherwood S, Fu Q. 2014. A drier future? Science 343:737–9.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stiehl-braun PA, Hartmann AA, Kandeler E, Buchmann NINA, Niklaus PA. 2011. Interactive effects of drought and N fertilization on the spatial distribution of methane assimilation in grassland soils. Global Change Biology 17:2629–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun Z, Liu L, Ma Y, Yin G, Zhao C, Zhang Y, Piao S. 2014. The effect of nitrogen addition on soil respiration from a nitrogen-limited forest soil. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 197:103–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valliere JM, Allen EB. 2016. Interactive effects of nitrogen deposition and drought-stress on plant-soil feedbacks of Artemisia californica seedlings. Plant and Soil 403:277–90.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Porder S, Houlton BZ, Chadwick OA. 2010. Terrestrial phosphorus limitation: mechanisms, implications, and nitrogen–phosphorus interactions. Ecological Applications 20:5–15.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang G, Liu F, Xue S. 2017. Nitrogen addition enhanced water uptake by affecting fine root morphology and coarse root anatomy of Chinese pine seedlings. Plant and Soil 418:177–89.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yan G, Xing Y, Lv X, Xu L, Zhang J, Dai G, Wang Q. 2019. Effects of artificial nitrogen addition and reduction in precipitation on soil CO2 and CH4 effluxes and composition of the microbial biomass in a temperate forest. European Journal of Soil Science 70:1197–211.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yan G, Xing Y, Wang Q, Mu C. 2020. Short legacy effects of growing season nitrogen addition and reduced precipitation alter soil respiration during nongrowing season. Forests 11:358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan L, Chen S, Huang J, Lin G. 2010. Differential responses of auto-and heterotrophic soil respiration to water and nitrogen addition in a semiarid temperate steppe. Global Change Biology 16:2345–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C, Niu D, Hall SJ, Wen H, Li X, Fu H, Elser JJ. 2014. Effects of simulated nitrogen deposition on soil respiration components and their temperature sensitivities in a semiarid grassland. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 75:113–23.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou L, Zhou X, Shao J, Nie Y, He Y, Jiang L, Hosseini Bai S. 2016. Interactive effects of global change factors on soil respiration and its components: a meta-analysis. Global Change Biology 22:3157–69.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou L, Zhou X, Zhang B, Lu M, Luo Y, Liu L, Li B. 2014. Different responses of soil respiration and its components to nitrogen addition among biomes: a meta-analysis. Global Change Biology 20:2332–43.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou M, Yan G, Xing Y, Chen F, Zhang X, Wang J, Wang Q. 2019. Nitrogen deposition and decreased precipitation does not change total nitrogen uptake in a temperate forest. Science of the Total Environment 651:32–41.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Professor Zhiqun Huang from Fujian Normal University for his comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this manuscript. This research was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China “Global Change and Response” (2016YFA0600800) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41773075, 41575137, 31370494, 31170421).

Author information

Author notes

  1. QW and YX designed the study, awarded funding, supervised data collection, and contributed to and edited manuscripts. QW, GY, YX, GL, and BH contributed the whole manuscript preparation and design and wrote the main manuscript text. QW, GY, YX, GL, and BH prepared all Figures, GY, YX, BH, GL, and QW prepared field experiments, prepared tables, and collected literature. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, 57 Jingxuan West Road, Qufu, 273165, China

    Guoyong Yan, Yajuan Xing, Guancheng Liu, Binbin Huang & Qinggui Wang

  2. Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Resource Utilization for Cold Region, College of Agricultural Resource and Environment, Heilongjiang University, 74 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150080, China

    Qinggui Wang

Authors
  1. Guoyong Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yajuan Xing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Guancheng Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Binbin Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Qinggui Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yajuan Xing or Qinggui Wang.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yan, G., Xing, Y., Liu, G. et al. Precipitation Pattern Regulates Soil Carbon Flux Responses to Nitrogen Addition in a Temperate Forest. Ecosystems 24, 1608–1623 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-021-00606-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-021-00606-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation