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Soil carbon pool structure and temperature sensitivity inferred using CO2 and 13CO2 incubation fluxes from five Hawaiian soils

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Abstract

We measured respiration and δ13C values of respiredand soil carbon in long-term incubations of soils from two forests andthree pastures along an altitudinal gradient in Hawaii. CO2fluxes early in the incubations decreased rapidly, and then stabilizedat approximately 20% of initial values for sevenmonths. We suggest that the rapid drop and subsequent stabilizationof respiration reflects a change in the dominant source of theCO2 from labile (active) to much more recalcitrantpools of soil organic matter (SOM). Estimates of active SOM weremade by integrating all of the carbon respired in excess of thatattributable to respiration of the intermediate SOM pool; thesevalues ranged from 0.7–4.3% of total soil C.δ13C values for carbon respired from the pasturesoils showed that older, forest-derived C contributed an increasingfraction of total soil respiration with time. Initial and late-stagerespiration responded similarly to changes in temperature, suggestingthat intermediate SOM is as sensitive to temperature as the activefraction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-5020, USA

    ALAN R. TOWNSEND & PETER M. VITOUSEK

  2. NASA-Ames Research Center, M.S. 239-4, Moffett Field, CA, 94305-1000, USA

    DAVID J. DESMARAIS & ANNE THARPE

Authors
  1. ALAN R. TOWNSEND
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  2. PETER M. VITOUSEK
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  3. DAVID J. DESMARAIS
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  4. ANNE THARPE
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TOWNSEND, A.R., VITOUSEK, P.M., DESMARAIS, D.J. et al. Soil carbon pool structure and temperature sensitivity inferred using CO2 and 13CO2 incubation fluxes from five Hawaiian soils. Biogeochemistry 38, 1–17 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017942918708

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