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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (9): 164-173.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2018547

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Several important issues of soil respiration under climate warming

ZHANG Zhi-qi1**, ZHANG Li-xu1**, XU Wei1, WANG Hao1, WANG Jin-zhou1, WANG Wei1, HE Jin-sheng1,2,*   

  1. 1.Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    2.State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
  • Received:2018-08-30 Revised:2018-10-08 Online:2019-09-20 Published:2019-09-20
  • Contact: *E-mail: jshe@pku.edu.cn
  • About author:These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract: Soil respiration (Rs) is a major pathway through which soil organic carbon returns to the atmosphere, and its response to climate warming has always been the focus of attention in global change ecology researches. During the past thirty years, great progress has been made in understanding mechanisms by which climate warming affects Rs and the impacts of warming on Rs, based on numerous temperature-raising experiments and models. However, most studies are focused on the direct effects of topsoil warming on Rs, and little attention has been paid to processes in the subsoil, and even less to the indirect effects of climate warming through soil animals and soil freezing-thawing processes, which could reduce the confidence in predictions of CO2 emission under climate warming. Thus, this paper proposes several issues urgently require resolution: 1) the response of deep soil respiration to temperature rise; 2) the effects of soil animals on soil respiration; and 3) the effects of soil freezing-thawing processes on soil respiration. For these three questions, this paper summarizes the research advances, identifies the existing knowledge deficiencies, provides details of opportunities for improvement, and presents suggestions for future research directions. This outline will certainly be helpful for understanding the response of soil respiration to warming and as a catalyst for building more precise carbon cycle models of terrestrial ecosystems.

Key words: CO2 emission, climate change, deep soil, soil animals, soil freezing-thawing