Print PageDespite the importance of soil respiration in regulating the global carbon budget and influencing climate change, our understanding of soil respiration and its responses to temperature is still limited. The goal of our project is to explore how soil respiration components (rhizosphere respiration and heterotrophic respiration) respond differently to warming and how temperature sensitivity of soil respiration varied among different warming experiments including air warming, combined soil and air warming, and different levels of temperature enhancement.
A series of large open-top environmental chambers to simultaneously manipulate air and soil temperatures were established in 2009 at Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts. The experimental plots include 1) combined soil and air warming with tree canopy presence, 2) combined soil and air warming in open areas, and 3) air warming. The treatments include soil temperature increased by 0 (control), 3, and 5 degrees C, and air temperature increased by 2, 4 and 8 degrees C. In total we have 33 plots. We measured soil respiration with a portable system (LiCor 6400) in each plot.
Results/Conclusions
We found that the response of soil respiration to temperature varies among different temperature treatments and the level of temperature enhancement, suggesting a complex behavior of microbial and root responses to temperature.
