Biochar increased soil respiration in temperate forests but had no effects in subtropical forests

Guiyao Zhou; Xuhui Zhou; Tao Zhang; Zhenggang Du; Yanghui He; Xihua Wang; Junjiong Shao; Ye Cao; Shenggui Xue; Hailong Wang; Chengyuan Xu

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2017.09.038

Biochar increased soil respiration in temperate forests but had no effects in subtropical forests

Guiyao Zhou, Xuhui Zhou, Tao Zhang, Zhenggang Du, Yanghui He, Xihua Wang, Junjiong Shao, Ye Cao, Shenggui Xue, Hailong Wang, Chengyuan Xu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

As a climate change mitigation strategy, biochar application to soil has been demonstrated to increase soil carbon (C) sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Although numerous manipulative studies have been conducted, it is still not fully understood how biochar application affects soil respiration (Rs) and its components (i.e., autotrophic [Ra] and heterotrophic respiration [Rh]) in forest ecosystems, especially in subtropical forests. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of forest ecosystems and a field experiment with biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha⁻¹ in a subtropical forest in Zhejiang, China to examine the effects of biochar application on Rs and its components. Our results showed that biochar application significantly increased Rs by 20.92% at the global scale with an increase of 20.25% in temperate forests and a nonsignificant effect in subtropical forests. Responses of Rs to biochar application varied with experimental methods and soil textures. Similarly, our field experiment showed that biochar amendment did not significantly affect Ra, Rh, and Rs in a subtropical forest in Eastern China. Specifically, the average Rs under biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha⁻¹ were 2.37, 2.06 and 2.15 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹, respectively (P > 0.05). Both Rs and Rh were positively correlated with microbial biomass C (MBC) and negatively with dissolved organic C (DOC). Both apparent temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀) of Rh and Rs were significantly higher under biochar treatments than in the control. Our findings indicate the importance of the differential effects of biochar application on Rs in different forest types for C sequestration, which may inform ecosystem and regional models to improve prediction of biochar effects on forest C dynamics and climate-biosphere feedbacks.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	339-349
Number of pages	11
Journal	Forest Ecology and Management
Volume	405
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.09.038
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2017
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31370489 , 31560151 ), “Thousand Young Talents” Program in China, the research plan of Qinghai Science and Technology Department (Grant No. 2014-ZJ-779 ) and “Outstanding doctoral dissertation cultivation plan of action of East China Normal University (Grant No. YB2016023 ). We would like to acknowledge the work carried out by the researchers whose published data was used for meta-analysis in this study.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.foreco.2017.09.038

Cite this

@article{0efce6920959429fa62feda8623adaef,

title = "Biochar increased soil respiration in temperate forests but had no effects in subtropical forests",

abstract = "As a climate change mitigation strategy, biochar application to soil has been demonstrated to increase soil carbon (C) sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Although numerous manipulative studies have been conducted, it is still not fully understood how biochar application affects soil respiration (Rs) and its components (i.e., autotrophic [Ra] and heterotrophic respiration [Rh]) in forest ecosystems, especially in subtropical forests. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of forest ecosystems and a field experiment with biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha−1 in a subtropical forest in Zhejiang, China to examine the effects of biochar application on Rs and its components. Our results showed that biochar application significantly increased Rs by 20.92% at the global scale with an increase of 20.25% in temperate forests and a nonsignificant effect in subtropical forests. Responses of Rs to biochar application varied with experimental methods and soil textures. Similarly, our field experiment showed that biochar amendment did not significantly affect Ra, Rh, and Rs in a subtropical forest in Eastern China. Specifically, the average Rs under biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha−1 were 2.37, 2.06 and 2.15 μmol m−2 s−1, respectively (P > 0.05). Both Rs and Rh were positively correlated with microbial biomass C (MBC) and negatively with dissolved organic C (DOC). Both apparent temperature sensitivity (Q10) of Rh and Rs were significantly higher under biochar treatments than in the control. Our findings indicate the importance of the differential effects of biochar application on Rs in different forest types for C sequestration, which may inform ecosystem and regional models to improve prediction of biochar effects on forest C dynamics and climate-biosphere feedbacks.",

keywords = "Autotrophic respiration, Biochar, Forest, Heterotrophic respiration, Meta-analysis",

author = "Guiyao Zhou and Xuhui Zhou and Tao Zhang and Zhenggang Du and Yanghui He and Xihua Wang and Junjiong Shao and Ye Cao and Shenggui Xue and Hailong Wang and Chengyuan Xu",

note = "Funding Information: The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31370489 , 31560151 ), “Thousand Young Talents” Program in China, the research plan of Qinghai Science and Technology Department (Grant No. 2014-ZJ-779 ) and “Outstanding doctoral dissertation cultivation plan of action of East China Normal University (Grant No. YB2016023 ). We would like to acknowledge the work carried out by the researchers whose published data was used for meta-analysis in this study. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2017",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.foreco.2017.09.038",

language = "English",

volume = "405",

pages = "339--349",

journal = "Forest Ecology and Management",

issn = "0378-1127",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Biochar increased soil respiration in temperate forests but had no effects in subtropical forests

AU - Zhou, Guiyao

AU - Zhou, Xuhui

AU - Zhang, Tao

AU - Du, Zhenggang

AU - He, Yanghui

AU - Wang, Xihua

AU - Shao, Junjiong

AU - Cao, Ye

AU - Xue, Shenggui

AU - Wang, Hailong

AU - Xu, Chengyuan

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31370489 , 31560151 ), “Thousand Young Talents” Program in China, the research plan of Qinghai Science and Technology Department (Grant No. 2014-ZJ-779 ) and “Outstanding doctoral dissertation cultivation plan of action of East China Normal University (Grant No. YB2016023 ). We would like to acknowledge the work carried out by the researchers whose published data was used for meta-analysis in this study. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2017/12/1

Y1 - 2017/12/1

N2 - As a climate change mitigation strategy, biochar application to soil has been demonstrated to increase soil carbon (C) sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Although numerous manipulative studies have been conducted, it is still not fully understood how biochar application affects soil respiration (Rs) and its components (i.e., autotrophic [Ra] and heterotrophic respiration [Rh]) in forest ecosystems, especially in subtropical forests. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of forest ecosystems and a field experiment with biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha−1 in a subtropical forest in Zhejiang, China to examine the effects of biochar application on Rs and its components. Our results showed that biochar application significantly increased Rs by 20.92% at the global scale with an increase of 20.25% in temperate forests and a nonsignificant effect in subtropical forests. Responses of Rs to biochar application varied with experimental methods and soil textures. Similarly, our field experiment showed that biochar amendment did not significantly affect Ra, Rh, and Rs in a subtropical forest in Eastern China. Specifically, the average Rs under biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha−1 were 2.37, 2.06 and 2.15 μmol m−2 s−1, respectively (P > 0.05). Both Rs and Rh were positively correlated with microbial biomass C (MBC) and negatively with dissolved organic C (DOC). Both apparent temperature sensitivity (Q10) of Rh and Rs were significantly higher under biochar treatments than in the control. Our findings indicate the importance of the differential effects of biochar application on Rs in different forest types for C sequestration, which may inform ecosystem and regional models to improve prediction of biochar effects on forest C dynamics and climate-biosphere feedbacks.

AB - As a climate change mitigation strategy, biochar application to soil has been demonstrated to increase soil carbon (C) sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Although numerous manipulative studies have been conducted, it is still not fully understood how biochar application affects soil respiration (Rs) and its components (i.e., autotrophic [Ra] and heterotrophic respiration [Rh]) in forest ecosystems, especially in subtropical forests. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of forest ecosystems and a field experiment with biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha−1 in a subtropical forest in Zhejiang, China to examine the effects of biochar application on Rs and its components. Our results showed that biochar application significantly increased Rs by 20.92% at the global scale with an increase of 20.25% in temperate forests and a nonsignificant effect in subtropical forests. Responses of Rs to biochar application varied with experimental methods and soil textures. Similarly, our field experiment showed that biochar amendment did not significantly affect Ra, Rh, and Rs in a subtropical forest in Eastern China. Specifically, the average Rs under biochar amendments of 0, 10, and 30 t ha−1 were 2.37, 2.06 and 2.15 μmol m−2 s−1, respectively (P > 0.05). Both Rs and Rh were positively correlated with microbial biomass C (MBC) and negatively with dissolved organic C (DOC). Both apparent temperature sensitivity (Q10) of Rh and Rs were significantly higher under biochar treatments than in the control. Our findings indicate the importance of the differential effects of biochar application on Rs in different forest types for C sequestration, which may inform ecosystem and regional models to improve prediction of biochar effects on forest C dynamics and climate-biosphere feedbacks.

KW - Autotrophic respiration

KW - Biochar

KW - Forest

KW - Heterotrophic respiration

KW - Meta-analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030117985&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.foreco.2017.09.038

DO - 10.1016/j.foreco.2017.09.038

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85030117985

SN - 0378-1127

VL - 405

SP - 339

EP - 349

JO - Forest Ecology and Management

JF - Forest Ecology and Management

ER -

Biochar increased soil respiration in temperate forests but had no effects in subtropical forests

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this