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Soil–atmosphere exchange of N2O, CO2 and CH4 along a slope of an evergreen broad-leaved forest in southern China

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Abstract

At most sites the magnitude of soil-atmosphere exchange of nitrous dioxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) was estimated based on a few chambers located in a limited area. Topography has been demonstrated to influence the production and consumption of these gases in temperate ecosystems, but this aspect has often been ignored in tropical areas. In this study, we investigated spatial variability of the net fluxes of these gases along a 100 m long slope of a evergreen broadleaved forest in southern China over a whole year. We expected that the lower part of slope would release more N2O and CO2, but take up less atmospheric CH4 than the upper part due to different availability of water and nutrients. Our results showed that the soil moisture (Water Filled Pore Space, WFPS) decreased along the slope from bottom to top as we expected, but among the three gases only N2O emissions followed this pattern. Annual means of WFPS ranged from 27.7% to 52.7% within the slope, and annual emissions of N2O ranged from 2.0 to 4.4 kg N ha−1 year−1, respectively. These two variables were highly and positively correlated across the slope. Neither potential rates of net N mineralization and nitrification, nor N2O emissions in the laboratory incubated soils varied with slope positions. Soil CO2 release and CH4 uptake appeared to be independent on slope position in this study. Our results suggested that soil water content and associated N2O emissions are likely to be influenced by topography even in a short slope, which may need to be taken into account in field measurements and modelling.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 30725006, 40703030, 30670392), Postdoctoral Fellowship of South China Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (200611), and the NitroEurope IP (EU-contract No. 17841). We thank X. M. Fang and others for their kind assistances in the field and laboratory. Comments from two anonymous reviewers have greatly improved the quality of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South China Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xingke Road No 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Yunting Fang, Wei Zhang, Guoyi Zhou, Jiangming Mo, Shaofeng Dong & Tao Zhang

  2. Forest & Landscape Denmark, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Hørsholm Kongevej 11, 2970, Hørsholm, Denmark

    Per Gundersen & Jesper Riis Christiansen

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  1. Yunting Fang
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  2. Per Gundersen
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  3. Wei Zhang
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  4. Guoyi Zhou
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  6. Jiangming Mo
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  7. Shaofeng Dong
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  8. Tao Zhang
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Correspondence to Yunting Fang.

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Responsible Editor: Per Ambus.

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Fang, Y., Gundersen, P., Zhang, W. et al. Soil–atmosphere exchange of N2O, CO2 and CH4 along a slope of an evergreen broad-leaved forest in southern China. Plant Soil 319, 37–48 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9847-2

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