Temperature Dependence of Soil Respiration Modulated by Thresholds in Soil Water Availability Across European Shrubland Ecosystems

Eszter Lellei-Kovács; Zoltán Botta-Dukát; Giovanbattista de Dato; Marc Estiarte; Gabriele Guidolotti; Gillian R. Kopittke; Edit Kovács-Láng; György Kröel-Dulay; Klaus Steenberg Larsen; Josep Peñuelas; Andrew R. Smith; Alwyn Sowerby; Albert Tietema; Inger Kappel Schmidt

doi:10.1007/s10021-016-0016-9

Temperature Dependence of Soil Respiration Modulated by Thresholds in Soil Water Availability Across European Shrubland Ecosystems

Eszter Lellei-Kovács^*, Zoltán Botta-Dukát, Giovanbattista de Dato, Marc Estiarte, Gabriele Guidolotti, Gillian R. Kopittke, Edit Kovács-Láng, György Kröel-Dulay, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Josep Peñuelas, Andrew R. Smith, Alwyn Sowerby, Albert Tietema, Inger Kappel Schmidt

^*Corresponding author for this work

Forest, Nature and Biomass

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Soil respiration (SR) is a major component of the global carbon cycle and plays a fundamental role in ecosystem feedback to climate change. Empirical modelling is an essential tool for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change, and also provides important data for calibrating and corroborating process-based models. In this study, we evaluated the performance of three empirical temperature–SR response functions (exponential, Lloyd–Taylor and Gaussian) at seven shrublands located within three climatic regions (Atlantic, Mediterranean and Continental) across Europe. We investigated the performance of SR models by including the interaction between soil moisture and soil temperature. We found that the best fit for the temperature functions depended on the site-specific climatic conditions. Including soil moisture, we identified thresholds in the three different response functions that improved the model fit in all cases. The direct soil moisture effect on SR, however, was weak at the annual time scale. We conclude that the exponential soil temperature function may only be a good predictor for SR in a narrow temperature range, and that extrapolating predictions for future climate based on this function should be treated with caution as modelled outputs may underestimate SR. The addition of soil moisture thresholds improved the model fit at all sites, but had a far greater ecological significance in the wet Atlantic shrubland where a fundamental change in the soil CO₂ efflux would likely have an impact on the whole carbon budget.

Original language	English
Journal	Ecosystems
Volume	19
Issue number	8
Pages (from-to)	1460–1477
ISSN	1432-9840
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0016-9
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2016

Keywords

annual soil respiration
empirical soil respiration models
shrubland
soil moisture threshold
temperature dependence
temperature sensitivity

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Lellei-Kovács, E., Botta-Dukát, Z., de Dato, G., Estiarte, M., Guidolotti, G., Kopittke, G. R., Kovács-Láng, E., Kröel-Dulay, G., Larsen, K. S., Peñuelas, J., Smith, A. R., Sowerby, A., Tietema, A., & Schmidt, I. K. (2016). Temperature Dependence of Soil Respiration Modulated by Thresholds in Soil Water Availability Across European Shrubland Ecosystems. Ecosystems, 19(8), 1460–1477. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0016-9

Lellei-Kovács, E, Botta-Dukát, Z, de Dato, G, Estiarte, M, Guidolotti, G, Kopittke, GR, Kovács-Láng, E, Kröel-Dulay, G, Larsen, KS, Peñuelas, J, Smith, AR, Sowerby, A, Tietema, A & Schmidt, IK 2016, 'Temperature Dependence of Soil Respiration Modulated by Thresholds in Soil Water Availability Across European Shrubland Ecosystems', Ecosystems, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 1460–1477. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0016-9

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abstract = "Soil respiration (SR) is a major component of the global carbon cycle and plays a fundamental role in ecosystem feedback to climate change. Empirical modelling is an essential tool for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change, and also provides important data for calibrating and corroborating process-based models. In this study, we evaluated the performance of three empirical temperature–SR response functions (exponential, Lloyd–Taylor and Gaussian) at seven shrublands located within three climatic regions (Atlantic, Mediterranean and Continental) across Europe. We investigated the performance of SR models by including the interaction between soil moisture and soil temperature. We found that the best fit for the temperature functions depended on the site-specific climatic conditions. Including soil moisture, we identified thresholds in the three different response functions that improved the model fit in all cases. The direct soil moisture effect on SR, however, was weak at the annual time scale. We conclude that the exponential soil temperature function may only be a good predictor for SR in a narrow temperature range, and that extrapolating predictions for future climate based on this function should be treated with caution as modelled outputs may underestimate SR. The addition of soil moisture thresholds improved the model fit at all sites, but had a far greater ecological significance in the wet Atlantic shrubland where a fundamental change in the soil CO2 efflux would likely have an impact on the whole carbon budget.",

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AU - de Dato, Giovanbattista

AU - Estiarte, Marc

AU - Guidolotti, Gabriele

AU - Kopittke, Gillian R.

AU - Kovács-Láng, Edit

AU - Kröel-Dulay, György

AU - Larsen, Klaus Steenberg

AU - Peñuelas, Josep

AU - Smith, Andrew R.

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AU - Tietema, Albert

AU - Schmidt, Inger Kappel

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N2 - Soil respiration (SR) is a major component of the global carbon cycle and plays a fundamental role in ecosystem feedback to climate change. Empirical modelling is an essential tool for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change, and also provides important data for calibrating and corroborating process-based models. In this study, we evaluated the performance of three empirical temperature–SR response functions (exponential, Lloyd–Taylor and Gaussian) at seven shrublands located within three climatic regions (Atlantic, Mediterranean and Continental) across Europe. We investigated the performance of SR models by including the interaction between soil moisture and soil temperature. We found that the best fit for the temperature functions depended on the site-specific climatic conditions. Including soil moisture, we identified thresholds in the three different response functions that improved the model fit in all cases. The direct soil moisture effect on SR, however, was weak at the annual time scale. We conclude that the exponential soil temperature function may only be a good predictor for SR in a narrow temperature range, and that extrapolating predictions for future climate based on this function should be treated with caution as modelled outputs may underestimate SR. The addition of soil moisture thresholds improved the model fit at all sites, but had a far greater ecological significance in the wet Atlantic shrubland where a fundamental change in the soil CO2 efflux would likely have an impact on the whole carbon budget.

AB - Soil respiration (SR) is a major component of the global carbon cycle and plays a fundamental role in ecosystem feedback to climate change. Empirical modelling is an essential tool for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change, and also provides important data for calibrating and corroborating process-based models. In this study, we evaluated the performance of three empirical temperature–SR response functions (exponential, Lloyd–Taylor and Gaussian) at seven shrublands located within three climatic regions (Atlantic, Mediterranean and Continental) across Europe. We investigated the performance of SR models by including the interaction between soil moisture and soil temperature. We found that the best fit for the temperature functions depended on the site-specific climatic conditions. Including soil moisture, we identified thresholds in the three different response functions that improved the model fit in all cases. The direct soil moisture effect on SR, however, was weak at the annual time scale. We conclude that the exponential soil temperature function may only be a good predictor for SR in a narrow temperature range, and that extrapolating predictions for future climate based on this function should be treated with caution as modelled outputs may underestimate SR. The addition of soil moisture thresholds improved the model fit at all sites, but had a far greater ecological significance in the wet Atlantic shrubland where a fundamental change in the soil CO2 efflux would likely have an impact on the whole carbon budget.

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KW - empirical soil respiration models

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KW - soil moisture threshold

KW - temperature dependence

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ER -

Temperature Dependence of Soil Respiration Modulated by Thresholds in Soil Water Availability Across European Shrubland Ecosystems

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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