Dynamics of soil CO ₂ efflux under varying atmospheric CO ₂ concentrations reveal dominance of slow processes

Abstract

We evaluated the effect on soil CO2 efflux (FCO2) of sudden changes in photosynthetic rates by altering CO2 concentration in plots subjected to +200 ppmv for 15 years. Five-day intervals of exposure to elevated CO2 (eCO2) ranging 1.0–1.8 times ambient did not affect FCO2. FCO2 did not decrease until 4 months after termination of the long-term eCO2 treatment, longer than the 10 days observed for decrease of FCO2 after experimental blocking of C flow to belowground, but shorter than the ~13 months it took for increase of FCO2 following the initiation of eCO2. The reduction of FCO2 upon termination of enrichment (~35%) cannot be explained by the reduction of leaf area (~15%) and associated carbohydrate production and allocation, suggesting a dispropor-tionate contraction of the belowground ecosystem components; this was consistent with the reductions in base respiration and FCO2- temperature sensitivity. These asymmetric responses pose a tractable challenge to process-based models attempting to isolate the effect of individual processes on FCO2.

Citation

Kim, Dohyoung; Oren, Ram; Clark, James S.; Palmroth, Sari; Oishi, A. Christopher; McCarthy, Heather R.; Maier, Chris A.; Johnsen, Kurt. 2017. Dynamics of soil CO ₂ efflux under varying atmospheric CO ₂ concentrations reveal dominance of slow processes . Global Change Biology. 10: 3501-.3512. 12 p. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13713.