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Title: A moisture function of soil heterotrophic respiration that incorporates microscale processes

Abstract

Soil heterotrophic respiration (HR) is an important source of soil-to-atmosphere CO2 flux, but its response to changes in soil water content (θ) is poorly understood. Earth system models (ESMs) commonly use empirical moisture functions to describe the HR-θ relationship, introducing significant uncertainty in predicting CO2 flux from soils. Generalized, mechanistic models that address this uncertainty are thus urgently needed. Here we derive, test, and calibrate a novel moisture function, fm, that encapsulates primary physicochemical processes controlling soil HR. We validated fm using simulation results and published experimental data, and established the quantitative relationships between parameters of fm and measurable soil properties, which enables fm to predict the HR-θ relationships for different soils across spatial scales. The fm function generated comparable HR-θ relationships with laboratory and field measurements. It may thus reduce uncertainty in predicting the response of soil organic carbon stocks to climate change compared with the empirical moisture functions currently used in ESMs.

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5]
  1. Tianjin Univ. (China)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab.-Univ. of Maryland Joint Global Climate Change Research Inst., College Park, MD (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guiyang (China)
  5. Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1490304
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-126718
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Yan, Zhifeng, Bond-Lamberty, Ben, Todd-Brown, Katherine E., Bailey, Vanessa L., Li, SiLiang, Liu, CongQiang, and Liu, Chongxuan. A moisture function of soil heterotrophic respiration that incorporates microscale processes. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04971-6.
Yan, Zhifeng, Bond-Lamberty, Ben, Todd-Brown, Katherine E., Bailey, Vanessa L., Li, SiLiang, Liu, CongQiang, & Liu, Chongxuan. A moisture function of soil heterotrophic respiration that incorporates microscale processes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04971-6
Yan, Zhifeng, Bond-Lamberty, Ben, Todd-Brown, Katherine E., Bailey, Vanessa L., Li, SiLiang, Liu, CongQiang, and Liu, Chongxuan. Mon . "A moisture function of soil heterotrophic respiration that incorporates microscale processes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04971-6. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1490304.
@article{osti_1490304,
title = {A moisture function of soil heterotrophic respiration that incorporates microscale processes},
author = {Yan, Zhifeng and Bond-Lamberty, Ben and Todd-Brown, Katherine E. and Bailey, Vanessa L. and Li, SiLiang and Liu, CongQiang and Liu, Chongxuan},
abstractNote = {Soil heterotrophic respiration (HR) is an important source of soil-to-atmosphere CO2 flux, but its response to changes in soil water content (θ) is poorly understood. Earth system models (ESMs) commonly use empirical moisture functions to describe the HR-θ relationship, introducing significant uncertainty in predicting CO2 flux from soils. Generalized, mechanistic models that address this uncertainty are thus urgently needed. Here we derive, test, and calibrate a novel moisture function, fm, that encapsulates primary physicochemical processes controlling soil HR. We validated fm using simulation results and published experimental data, and established the quantitative relationships between parameters of fm and measurable soil properties, which enables fm to predict the HR-θ relationships for different soils across spatial scales. The fm function generated comparable HR-θ relationships with laboratory and field measurements. It may thus reduce uncertainty in predicting the response of soil organic carbon stocks to climate change compared with the empirical moisture functions currently used in ESMs.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-04971-6},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Jul 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Cited by: 104 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: The macroscopic moisture function, fm, and its links to microscale processes controlling heterotrophic respiration (HR) in soils. The red curve qualitatively describes the soil HR–moisture relationship, fm, in soils. The inset conceptual figures depict the microscale processes controlling soil HR under dry conditions (a), in which HR ratemore » is limited by the bioavailability of organic carbon (C), and under wet conditions (b), in which HR rate is limited by O2 supply, respectively. The processes controlling the bioavailability of organic C and O2 include the desorption of soil-adsorbed organic C, diffusion of dissolved organic C and O2, and exchange between dissolved and gaseous O2. See Methods section for the details of fm and the microscale processes« less

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