2024-03-29T05:52:21Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1320902016-06-28T01:11:10Zcom_10261_15com_10261_6col_10261_268
Sustained impact of drought on wet shrublands mediated by soil physical changes
Domínguez, María Teresa
Emmett, B. A.
Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología
Soil respiration
Acclimation
Water retention
Warming
Bryophyte
Calluna vulgaris
Soil structure
13 páginas.-- 6 figuras.-- 52 referencias.-- The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10533-014-0059-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.-- Domínguez, María Teresa et al...
Projected climate warming may substantially increase carbon emissions from wet organic soils, contributing to a positive feedback between the terrestrial carbon cycle and climate change. Evidence suggests that in these soils the stimulation of soil respiration by warming can be sustained over long periods of time due to the large availability of C substrates. However, the long-term response of wet organic soils to drought remains uncertain. Organo-mineral soils might be particularly vulnerable, because of their limited soil moisture pool to buffer drought events. Using a whole-ecosystem climate-change experiment in North Wales (UK) we show that soil respiration in podzolic (organo-mineral) soils from wet shrublands is more vulnerable to recurrent drought than to warming, and that the drought impact does not attenuate at decadal time scales. Stimulation of soil respiration by drought was linked to major changes in soil structure that led to a 54 % reduction in water holding capacity compared to control. Bryophyte abundance was found to buffer soil moisture losses, moderating soil CO2 efflux under warming. As there was no evidence of change in plant productivity to offset the increased soil C emissions under drought, this response may result in a positive climate feedback. The results indicate the potentially critical role that changes in sub-dominant vegetation and in soil physical properties may have in determining climate change impacts on soil C dynamics.
We thank all the CEH staff members who have contributed to the experiment establishment and maintenance over the years, in particular David Williams. This research was funded by the EU projects CLIMOOR, VULCAN and INCREASE FP7-INFRASTRUCTURE-2008-1 (Grant Agreement no. 227628)—the INCREASE project. M.T.D was supported by two postdoctoral fellowships awarded by the Spanish National Science and Technology Foundation
Peer reviewed
2015-02
artículo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Biogeochemistry 122: 151-163 (2015)
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/132090
10.1007/s10533-014-0059-y
1573-515X
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011100
en
Postprint
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10533-014-0059-y
Sí
open
Springer