Effects of collar size and buried depth on the measurement of soil respiration in a typical steppe

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2017.0280

Abstract

Abstract: Aims

Soil respiration plays an important role in carbon cycling in grassland ecosystems. However, the effects of collar size and buried depth during field measurement on soil respiration are rarely assessed.

Methods

We conducted a two-factor experiment to examine how soil collar depth (2 cm and 5 cm) and size (15 cm × 15 cm and 30 cm × 30 cm) affected the soil respiration (SR), post aboveground net primary productivity (post-ANPP), soil temperature (ST), and soil water content (SWC) in a semi-arid steppe.

Important findings

The results showed that the deep-inserted soil collar (5 cm soil depth) decreased the soil respiration by 8.0%-9.7% compared with the shallow-inserted soil collar (2 cm soil depth). The large-sized soil collar (30 cm × 30 cm) decreased the soil respiration by 9.1%-10.8% compared with the small-sized soil collar (15 cm × 15 cm). We also found that the deep-inserted and large-sized soil collars had higher ST but lower SWC compared with the shallow-depth and small-sized soil collars. Structural equation model indicated that the lower respiration in the deep-inserted and large-sized soil collars was due to the lower post-ANPP, ST, and SWC. Overall, we found that the soil collar size and buried depth can substantially alter the magnitude of soil respiration by changing plant biomass, ST, and SWC. These findings suggest that the influences of collar size and buried depth on soil respiration should be considered for better estimation and modeling of soil CO₂ fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.

Key words: collar, net primary productivity, soil temperature, soil water content, clonal integration, seasonal dynamics, CO₂, structural equation model

LI Jian-Jun, LIU Lian, CHEN Di-Ma, XU Feng-Wei, CHENG Jun-Hui, BAI Yong-Fei. Effects of collar size and buried depth on the measurement of soil respiration in a typical steppe[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2019, 43(2): 152-164.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2017.0280

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2019/V43/I2/152

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Effects of collar buried depth, collar size, and precipitation events on soil respiration rate (SR)(A), soil temperature (ST)(B), and soil water content (SWC)(C) in the growing season of 2013 (insets: mean ± SE). D2S15、D5S15、D2S30、D5S30 see Table 2. Different lowercase letters indicate significant difference among treatments (p < 0.05).

Table 1 Results of repeated measures ANOVA for the effects of collar buried depth (D), collar size (S), and time of measurement (t) on soil respiration (SR), soil temperature (ST), and soil water content (SWC)

处理 Treatment	响应变量 Response variable
处理 Treatment	SR	ST	SWC
t	506.6^***	2293.6^***	311.8^***
D	20.5^***	143.8^***	6.2^*
S	35.9^***	13.2^**	61.4^***
t × D	15.1^***	24.7^***	0.8^ns
t × S	6.2^**	4.3^*	5.5^**
D × S	0.6^ns	1.5^ns	1.2^ns
t × D × S	7.2^***	2.5^ns	0.2^ns

Table 2 The variables to collar buried depth and side length of the square collar on soil respiration rate (SR), soil temperature (ST), and soil water content (SWC) of each time depend on one-way ANOVA

日期 Date	处理 Treatment	SR	ST	SWC
2013-06-24	D₂S₁₅	4.22 ± 0.10^ab	15.83 ± 0.08^b	17.12 ± 1.30^a
	D₅S₁₅	4.58 ± 0.11^a	18.08 ± 0.27^a	15.52 ± 0.75^a
	D₂S₃₀	4.10 ± 0.16^b	16.33 ± 0.14^b	17.50 ± 1.00^a
	D₅S₃₀	4.52 ± 0.12^a	17.98 ± 0.13^a	15.92 ± 0.8^a
2013-07-06	D₂S₁₅	5.68 ± 0.52^a	18.05 ± 0.10^c	20.67 ± 1.43^a
	D₅S₁₅	4.79 ± 0.16^b	19.83 ± 0.11^a	17.20 ± 1.05^a
	D₂S₃₀	4.58 ± 0.11^b	18.83 ± 0.08^b	19.02 ± 1.36^a
	D₅S₃₀	4.69 ± 0.20^b	19.73 ± 0.05^a	19.03 ± 0.80^a
2013-07-22	D₂S₁₅	8.10 ± 0.18^a	23.27 ± 0.24^c	26.68 ± 0.4^a
	D₅S₁₅	6.00 ± 0.06^b	23.78 ± 0.07^bc	24.17 ± 0.21^b
	D₂S₃₀	6.29 ± 0.22^b	24.13 ± 0.26^ab	25.68 ± 0.43^a
	D₅S₃₀	5.37 ± 0.07^c	24.40 ± 0.20^a	22.72 ± 0.62^c
2013-08-14	D₂S₁₅	5.21 ± 0.22^a	20.43 ± 0.13^a	19.88 ± 1.53^a
	D₅S₁₅	5.26 ± 0.20^a	20.48 ± 0.08^a	18.63 ± 0.88^a
	D₂S₃₀	5.38 ± 0.31^a	20.43 ± 0.13^a	19.47 ± 1.19^a
	D₅S₃₀	3.96 ± 0.09^b	20.72 ± 0.09^a	15.23 ± 0.65^b
2013-09-15	D₂S₁₅	3.31 ± 0.15^a	12.33 ± 0.29^b	14.10 ± 0.83^ab
	D₅S₁₅	3.42 ± 0.11^a	14.83 ± 0.13^a	13.97 ± 0.43^ab
	D₂S₃₀	3.02 ± 0.13^a	11.55 ± 0.22^c	14.93 ± 1.3^a
	D₅S₃₀	3.17 ± 0.15^a	15.00 ± 0.17^a	11.77 ± 0.56^b
2013-10-16	D₂S₁₅	0.63 ± 0.03^a	7.65 ± 0.54^b	8.33 ± 0.42^a
	D₅S₁₅	0.66 ± 0.02^a	8.28 ± 0.27^ab	6.90 ± 0.38^b
	D₂S₃₀	0.67 ± 0.02^a	9.12 ± 0.52^a	8.27 ± 0.41^a
	D₅S₃₀	0.60 ± 0.04^a	8.88 ± 0.31^ab	6.48 ± 0.17^b

Fig. 2 Results of ANOVAs for aboveground biomass before treatments (pre-AGP)(A), the aboveground net primary productivity (post-ANPP)(B) in the growing season of 2013 (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters indicate significant difference among treatments (p < 0.05).

Fig. 3 Relationship between soil respiration rate (SR) and soil temperature (ST) at 10 cm soil depth under different treatments. D and S denote the buried depth and length of the square soil collar, respectively. D2S15, D = 2 cm and S =15 cm; D5S15, D = 5 cm, S = 15 cm; D2S30, D = 2 cm, S = 30 cm; and D5S30, D = 5 cm, S = 30 cm.

Fig. 4 Relationship between soil respiration rate (SR) and soil water content (SWC) at 10 cm soil depth under different treatments. D and S denote the buried depth and length of the square soil collar, respectively. D2S15, D = 2 cm and S =15 cm; D5S15, D = 5 cm, S = 15 cm; D2S30, D = 2 cm, S = 30 cm; and D5S30, D = 5 cm, S = 30 cm.

Fig. 5 Relationships between soil respiration rate (SR) and aboveground net primary productively (post-ANPP) under different treatments. D and S denote the buried depth and length of the square soil collar, respectively. D2S15, D = 2 cm and S =15 cm; D5S15, D = 5 cm, S = 15 cm; D2S30, D = 2 cm, S = 30 cm; and D5S30, D = 5 cm, S = 30 cm.

Fig. 6 Structural equation modeling analysis for the effects of collar depth (D) and size (S) on soil respiration rate, via pathways of biotic and abiotic factors during the study period. Square boxes indicate variables included in the model. Results of model fitting: χ2 = 0.89, p = 0.874 > 0.085, df = 5, RMSEA = 0.000 < 0.05, AGFI = 0.900 > 0.90, GFI = 0.975 > 0.90 (which indicates a good fit of the model to the data). Black and gray solid arrows indicate significantly positive and negative effects, respectively and dashed arrows indicate insignificant effects (p > 0.05). Values associated with the arrows represent standardized path coefficients. R2 values associated with response variables indicate the proportion of variation explained by relationships with all other variables. RMSEA, root-mean-square error of approximation; AGFI, adjusted goodness-of-fit index; GFI, goodness-of-fit index. post-ANPP, post aboveground net primary productivity; SR, soil respiration; ST, soil temperature; SWC, soil water content. **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001.

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