Elsevier

Pedosphere

Volume 25, Issue 2, April 2015, Pages 263-274
Pedosphere

Nitrous Oxide Emissions from a Masson Pine Forest Soil in Subtropical Central China

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(15)60011-XGet rights and content

Abstract

The forest ecosystem plays a pivotal role in contributing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. In order to characterize the temporal pattern of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and identify the key factors affecting N2O emissions from a Masson pine forest in a hilly red-soil region in subtropical central China, we measured the N2O emissions in Jinjing of Hunan Province using the static chambergas chromatographic method for 3 years (2010–2012) and analyzed the relationships between the N2O fluxes and the environmental variables. Our results revealed that the N2O fluxes over the 3 years varied from −36.0 to 296.7 μg N m−2 h−1, averaging 18.4 ± 5.6 μg N m−2 h−1 (n = 3). The average annual N2O emissions were estimated to be 1.6 ± 0.3 kg N ha−1 year−1. The N2O fluxes exhibited clear intra-annual (seasonal) variations as they were higher in summers and lower in winters. Compared with other forest observations in the subtropics, N2O emissions at our site were relatively high, possibly due to the high local dry/wet N deposition, and were mostly sensitive to variations in precipitation and soil ammonium N content. In this work, a multiple linear regression model was developed to determine the influence of environmental factors on N2O emissions, in which a category predictor of “Season” was intentionally used to account for the seasonal variation of the N2O fluxes. Such a model explained almost 40% of the total variation in daily N2O emissions from the Masson pine forest soil studied (P < 0.001).

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      Based on a meta-analysis of N addition experimental data worldwide, Liu and Greaver (2009) concluded that N addition could have a significantly positive impact on N2O emission. The fundamental reason lie in that constant nitrogen deposition can give rise to changes in plant physiology and soil microbial community in terrestrial ecosystems (Litton et al., 2007; Treseder, 2008), which consequently result in changes in soil biogenic N2O emission (Butterbach-Bahl et al., 1997; Allen and Schlesinger, 2004; Bange, 2006; Chen et al., 2015). For forest ecosystems, the availability of soil ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3–) can be increased in case of chronic N deposition, thus affecting N2O flux from soils (Smith et al., 2003; Bowden et al., 2004; Monteny et al., 2006).

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      Our data are largely consistent with the previous observations that soil N2O and NO fluxes were significantly lower for forest soil (unmanaged) than tea field (managed). Consistent with previous studies, forest soil in this study emitted small amounts of N2O and NO possibly attributed to the local dry and wet N decomposition, which agreed well with the previous researches (Butterbach-Bahl et al., 1997; Chen et al., 2015). However, conversion of forest to tea field in the first year significantly triggered substantial N2O and NO emissions, presumably, the passage of several seasons may account for the increased N2O and NO emissions.

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