Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Long-term measurements in a mixed-grass prairie reveal a change in soil organic carbon recalcitrance and its environmental sensitivity under warming

Journal Article · · Oecologia
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [2];  [6];  [7];  [7]
  1. Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States); Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  2. East China Normal Univ., Shanghai (China)
  3. Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States)
  4. Nanjing Forestry Univ., Jiangsu (China)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hunan (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangxi (China)
  7. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Soil respiration, the major pathway for ecosystem carbon (C) loss, has the potential to enter a positive feedback loop with the atmospheric CO2 due to climate warming. For reliable projections of climate-carbon feedbacks, accurate quantification of soil respiration and identification of mechanisms that control its variability are essential. Process-based models simulate soil respiration as functions of belowground C input, organic matter quality, and sensitivity to environmental conditions. However, evaluation and calibration of process-based models against the long-term in situ measurements are rare. Here, we evaluate the performance of the Terrestrial ECOsystem (TECO) model in simulating total and heterotrophic soil respiration measured during a 16-year warming experiment in a mixed-grass prairie; calibrate model parameters against these and other measurements collected during the experiment; and explore whether the mechanisms of C dynamics have changed over the years. Calibrating model parameters against observations of individual years substantially improved model performance in comparison to pre-calibration simulations, explaining 79–86% of variability in observed soil respiration. Interannual variation of the calibrated model parameters indicated increasing recalcitrance of soil C and changing environmental sensitivity of microbes. Overall, we found that (1) soil organic C became more recalcitrant in intact soil compared to root-free soil; (2) warming offset the effects of increasing C recalcitrance in intact soil and changed microbial sensitivity to moisture conditions. Furthermore, these findings indicate that soil respiration may decrease in the future due to C quality, but this decrease may be offset by warming-induced changes in C cycling mechanisms and their responses to moisture conditions.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1855638
Journal Information:
Oecologia, Journal Name: Oecologia Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 197; ISSN 0029-8549
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (80)

Temperature sensitivity of soil microbial communities: An application of macromolecular rate theory to microbial respiration: TEMPERATURE SENSITIVITY OF SOIL MICROBES journal June 2016
Standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) revisited: parameter fitting, evapotranspiration models, tools, datasets and drought monitoring journal December 2013
Species effects on nitrogen cycling: a test with perennial grasses journal October 1990
The effect of soil drying on humus decomposition and nitrogen availability journal September 1958
A meta-analysis of the response of soil respiration, net nitrogen mineralization, and aboveground plant growth to experimental ecosystem warming journal February 2001
Global patterns in root decomposition: comparisons of climate and litter quality effects journal November 2001
Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes in Response to Warming and Clipping in a Tallgrass Prairie journal March 2013
Microbial carbon use efficiency: accounting for population, community, and ecosystem-scale controls over the fate of metabolized organic matter journal February 2016
Belowground net primary productivity and biomass allocation of a grassland in Inner Mongolia is affected by grazing intensity journal April 2008
Soil moisture increment as a controlling variable of the “Birch effect”. Interactions with the pre-wetting soil moisture and litter addition journal February 2014
A two-leaf model for canopy conductance, photosynthesis and partitioning of available energy I: journal May 1998
Rising atmospheric CO2 and human nutrition: toward globally imbalanced plant stoichiometry? journal October 2002
Physical constraints affecting bacterial habitats and activity in unsaturated porous media – a review journal June 2007
A review of applications of model–data fusion to studies of terrestrial carbon fluxes at different scales journal November 2009
Experimental warming amplified opposite impacts of drought vs. wet extremes on ecosystem carbon cycle in a tallgrass prairie journal October 2019
Parameter and input data uncertainty estimation for the assessment of long-term soil organic carbon dynamics journal February 2008
Temperature sensitivity increases with soil organic carbon recalcitrance along an elevational gradient in the Wuyi Mountains, China journal October 2010
Change in Heat Capacity for Enzyme Catalysis Determines Temperature Dependence of Enzyme Catalyzed Rates journal September 2013
Separating root and soil microbial contributions to soil respiration: A review of methods and observations journal January 2000
Interannual variation of soil respiration in two New England forests journal June 2001
Probabilistic inversion of a terrestrial ecosystem model: Analysis of uncertainty in parameter estimation and model prediction: PROBABILISTIC INVERSION OF TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM journal May 2006
Soil hydrological properties regulate grassland ecosystem responses to multifactor global change: A modeling analysis journal January 2008
The sensitivity of the PDSI to the Thornthwaite and Penman-Monteith parameterizations for potential evapotranspiration journal January 2011
Matrix-Based Sensitivity Assessment of Soil Organic Carbon Storage: A Case Study from the ORCHIDEE-MICT Model journal August 2018
Evaluation of a Data Assimilation System for Land Surface Models Using CLM4.5 journal October 2018
Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model journal November 2000
Effect of warming and drought on grassland microbial communities journal March 2011
Long-term sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to warming journal January 2005
Stability of organic carbon in deep soil layers controlled by fresh carbon supply journal November 2007
Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks journal January 2008
Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property journal October 2011
Soil-carbon response to warming dependent on microbial physiology journal April 2010
Changes in microclimate induced by experimental warming and clipping in tallgrass prairie journal August 2002
Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines journal June 1953
Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming journal November 2016
Monte Carlo sampling methods using Markov chains and their applications journal April 1970
Drought history affects grassland plant and microbial carbon turnover during and after a subsequent drought event journal May 2016
The Microbial Efficiency-Matrix Stabilization (MEMS) framework integrates plant litter decomposition with soil organic matter stabilization: do labile plant inputs form stable soil organic matter? journal February 2013
Predictability of the terrestrial carbon cycle journal December 2014
Enhanced decomposition of stable soil organic carbon and microbial catabolic potentials by long-term field warming journal June 2017
Matrix approach to land carbon cycle modeling: A case study with the Community Land Model journal November 2017
Temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon decomposition increased with mean carbon residence time: Field incubation and data assimilation journal September 2017
Biotic responses buffer warming-induced soil organic carbon loss in Arctic tundra journal June 2018
Successional change in species composition alters climate sensitivity of grassland productivity journal June 2018
Reduced carbon use efficiency and increased microbial turnover with soil warming journal December 2018
Model parameterization to represent processes at unresolved scales and changing properties of evolving systems journal January 2020
Dynamics of carbon stocks in soils and detritus across chronosequences of different forest types in the Pacific Northwest, USA journal September 2004
Carbon respired by terrestrial ecosystems - recent progress and challenges journal February 2006
Trends and methodological impacts in soil CO2 efflux partitioning: A metaanalytical review journal June 2006
Source components and interannual variability of soil CO 2 efflux under experimental warming and clipping in a grassland ecosystem journal March 2007
Responses of soil respiration to elevated CO 2 , air warming, and changing soil water availability in a model old-field grassland journal November 2007
Lagged effects of experimental warming and doubled precipitation on annual and seasonal aboveground biomass production in a tallgrass prairie journal December 2008
Warming and drying suppress microbial activity and carbon cycling in boreal forest soils journal December 2008
Coordinated approaches to quantify long-term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change: LONG-TERM GLOBAL CHANGE EXPERIMENTS journal January 2011
Responses of terrestrial ecosystems to temperature and precipitation change: a meta-analysis of experimental manipulation: META-ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION journal January 2011
Effects of soil moisture on the temperature sensitivity of heterotrophic respiration vary seasonally in an old-field climate change experiment journal September 2011
Concurrent and lagged impacts of an anomalously warm year on autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration: a deconvolution analysis journal April 2010
Environmental and stoichiometric controls on microbial carbon-use efficiency in soils: Research review journal July 2012
Synthesis and modeling perspectives of rhizosphere priming journal August 2013
Soil Warming and Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks to the Climate System journal December 2002
Ecological Forecasts: An Emerging Imperative journal July 2001
Long-term pattern and magnitude of soil carbon feedback to the climate system in a warming world journal October 2017
Life in Dry Soils: Effects of Drought on Soil Microbial Communities and Processes journal November 2018
The Oklahoma Mesonet: A Technical Overview journal February 1995
A Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index journal April 2010
Climate–Carbon Cycle Feedback Analysis: Results from the C 4 MIP Model Intercomparison journal July 2006
Statewide Monitoring of the Mesoscale Environment: A Technical Update on the Oklahoma Mesonet journal March 2007
Litter Quality and the Temperature Sensitivity of Decomposition journal February 2005
MODELING PATTERNS OF NONLINEARITY IN ECOSYSTEM RESPONSES TO TEMPERATURE, CO 2 , AND PRECIPITATION CHANGES journal March 2008
Changes in Ecosystem Structure and Function Along a Chronosequence of Restored Grasslands journal December 2002
Responses of ecosystem carbon cycle to experimental warming: a meta-analysis journal March 2013
Rate my data: quantifying the value of ecological data for the development of models of the terrestrial carbon cycle journal January 2013
Experimental warming altered rates of carbon processes, allocation, and carbon storage in a tallgrass prairie journal November 2015
Theoretical Analysis of the Long-Term Dynamics of Carbon and Nitrogen in Soils journal October 1987
Aboveground Biomass Estimation with the Canopy Intercept Method: A Plant Growth Form Caveat journal February 1990
Modeling adaptation of carbon use efficiency in microbial communities journal October 2014
Temperature Sensitivity as a Microbial Trait Using Parameters from Macromolecular Rate Theory journal November 2016
Empirical and process-based approaches to climate-induced forest mortality models journal January 2013
A global database of soil respiration data journal January 2010
Litter Quality and the Temperature Sensitivity of Decomposition collection January 2016

Similar Records

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Data-assimilation
Environmental sensitivity
Long-term warming experiment
Soil organic recalcitrance
Soil respiration