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Long-term experimental warming decreased labile soil organic carbon in a tallgrass prairie

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Abstract

Aims

Climate warming has been hypothesized to influence dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC), especially labile SOC due to its rapid response to changes in temperature and carbon (C) supply. In this study, we examined impacts of experimental warming on the labile and whole SOC pools in association with warming-induced vegetation changes from 2000 to 2008 in a tallgrass prairie in Oklahoma, USA.

Methods

Infrared heaters were used to elevate soil temperature by approximately 2°C since November 1999. The modified potassium permanganate (KMnO4, 0.02 mol L−1) procedure was used to estimate chemically labile organic C (LOC).

Results

Warming significantly decreased chemically labile organic C (LOC) by an average of 15.56 %, but had little effect on SOC content. The decrease in LOC was probably attributable to increased soil respiration, enhanced soil erosion, and possibly stimulated C4 dominance under warming. Warming did not induce an instantaneous decrease in LOC. A 2-stage variation in LOC response to warming was observed, with no significant changes from 2000 to 2004 and significant decreases from 2005 to 2008. Lagged temporal dynamics of LOC (2 yrs) asynchronously correlated with warming-increased C4 proportion of aboveground biomass (AGB).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that staged decrease in LOC under warming may potentially relate to the increase in C4 biomass through detrital inputs, making it complex to predict the effect of warming on C cycling in this region.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Junbo Du and Dr. Tong Yuan for their help with laboratory work. This study is financially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants DEB 0078325 and DEB 0743778; by the Office of Science (BER), Department of Energy, under grant DE-SC0004601; and through the Midwestern Regional Center of the National Institute for Climatic Change Research at Michigan Technological University, under award number DE-FC02-06ER64158.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany & Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, 101 David L. Boren Blvd., Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Xia Xu, Rebecca A. Sherry, Shuli Niu, Jizhong Zhou & Yiqi Luo

  2. Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Jizhong Zhou

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  1. Xia Xu
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  2. Rebecca A. Sherry
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  4. Jizhong Zhou
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Correspondence to Xia Xu.

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Responsible Editor: Ingrid Koegel-Knabner.

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Xu, X., Sherry, R.A., Niu, S. et al. Long-term experimental warming decreased labile soil organic carbon in a tallgrass prairie. Plant Soil 361, 307–315 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-012-1265-9

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