Responses of soil respiration to simulated precipitation pulses in semiarid steppe under different grazing regimes

Abstract

Aims Precipitation pulses and different land use practices (such as grazing) play important roles in regulating soil respiration and carbon balance of semiarid steppe ecosystems in Inner Mongolia. However, the interactive effects of grazing and rain event magnitude on soil respiration of steppe ecosystems are still unknown. We conducted a manipulative experiment with simulated precipitation pulses in Inner Mongolia steppe to study the possible responses of soil respiration to different precipitation pulse sizes and to examine how grazing may affect the responses of soil respiration to precipitation pulses.Methods Six water treatments with different precipitation pulse sizes (0, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 mm) were conducted in the ungrazed and grazed sites, respectively. Variation patterns of soil respiration of each treatment were determined continuously after the water addition treatments.Important Findings Rapid and substantial increases in soil respiration occurred 1 day after the water treatments in both sites, and the magnitude and duration of the increase in soil respiration depended on pulse size. Significantly positive relationships between the soil respiration and soil moisture in both sites suggested that soil moisture was the most important factor responsible for soil respiration rate during rain pulse events. The ungrazed site maintained significantly higher soil moisture for a longer time, which was the reason that the soil respiration in the ungrazed site was maintained relatively higher rate and longer period than that in the grazed site after a rain event. The significant exponential relationship between soil temperature and soil respiration was found only in the plots with the high water addition treatments (50 and 100 mm). Lower capacity of soil water holding and lower temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in the grazed site indicated that degraded steppe due to grazing might release less CO2 to the atmosphere through soil respiration under future precipitation and temperature scenarios.