Different responses of soil respiration to environmental factors across forest stages in a Southeast Asian forest

Autor: Warren Y. Brockelman, Siriphong Yaemphum, Weerapong Unawong, Chadtip Rodtassana, Wirong Chanthorn, Sakonvan Chawchai, Pantana Tor-ngern, Anuttara Nathalang
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ecology and Evolution
Ecology and Evolution, Vol 11, Iss 21, Pp 15430-15443 (2021)
ISSN: 2045-7758
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8248
Popis: Soil respiration (SR) in forests contributes significant carbon dioxide emissions from terrestrial ecosystems and is highly sensitive to environmental changes, including soil temperature, soil moisture, microbial community, surface litter, and vegetation type. Indeed, a small change in SR may have large impacts on the global carbon balance, further influencing feedbacks to climate change. Thus, detailed characterization of SR responses to changes in environmental conditions is needed to accurately estimate carbon dioxide emissions from forest ecosystems. However, data for such analyses are still limited, especially in tropical forests of Southeast Asia where various stages of forest succession exist due to previous land‐use changes. In this study, we measured SR and some environmental factors including soil temperature (ST), soil moisture (SM), and organic matter content (OM) in three successional tropical forests in both wet and dry periods. We also analyzed the relationships between SR and these environmental variables. Results showed that SR was higher in the wet period and in older forests. Although no response of SR to ST was found in younger forest stages, SR of the old‐growth forest significantly responded to ST, plausibly due to the nonuniform forest structure, including gaps, that resulted in a wide range of ST. Across forest stages, SM was the limiting factor for SR in the wet period, whereas SR significantly varied with OM in the dry period. Overall, our results indicated that the responses of SR to environmental factors varied temporally and across forest succession. Nevertheless, these findings are still preliminary and call for detailed investigations on SR and its variations with environmental factors in Southeast Asian tropical forests where patches of successional stages dominate.
We measured and analyzed soil respiration (SR) with environmental factors in three successional forests in Thailand. Results showed that SR was generally higher in the wet season and in older forests. Across all forest stages, soil moisture was the main factor contributing to variation in SR in the wet season while organic matter content played significant role in the dry season.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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