Soil microbial respiration from observations and Earth System Models

Shao, Peng; Zeng, Xubin; Moore, David J. P.; Zeng, Xiaodong

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034034

Cited by 69 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(69 reference statements)

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“…Using this approach, we estimated a global Rh of 49.5 (Subke et al, equation) and 49.8 Pg C/year (Bond‐Lamberty et al, equation), which represents 56–57% of global Rs (based on our predicted global value of 87.9 Pg C/year). Our estimates are comparable to another estimate of 51 Pg C/year made by applying the Bond‐Lamberty et al () empirical relationship to grid‐based global Rs predictions (Hashimoto et al, ), and falls among existing Earth System Model (ESM) global Rh estimates ranging from 41.3–71.6 Pg C/year (Shao et al, ) and terrestrial biosphere model (TBM) estimates ranging from 35–69 Pg C/year (Tian et al, ). These comparisons bring attention to the importance of developing benchmarks to test performance and better parameterize TBM and ESM for Rh.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Spatial Predictions and Associated Uncertainty of Annual Soil Respiration at the Global Scale

Warner

Bond‐Lamberty

Jian

et al. 2019

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

108

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Soil respiration (Rs), the soil‐to‐atmosphere CO2 flux produced by microbes and plant roots, is a critical but uncertain component of the global carbon cycle. Our current understanding of the variability and dynamics is limited by the coarse spatial resolution of existing estimates. We predicted annual Rs and associated uncertainty across the world at 1‐km resolution using a quantile regression forest algorithm trained with observations from the global Soil Respiration Database spanning from 1961 to 2011. This model yielded a global annual Rs estimate of 87.9 Pg C/year with an associated global uncertainty of 18.6 (mean absolute error) and 40.4 (root mean square error) Pg C/year. The estimated annual heterotrophic respiration (Rh), derived from empirical relationships with Rs, was 49.7 Pg C/year over the same period. Predicted Rs rates and associated uncertainty varied widely across vegetation types, with the greatest predicted rates of Rs in evergreen broadleaf forests (accounting for 20.9% of global Rs). The greatest prediction uncertainties were in northern latitudes and arid to semiarid ecosystems, suggesting that these areas should be targeted in future measurement campaigns. This study provides predictions of Rs (and associated prediction uncertainty) at unprecedentedly high spatial resolution across the globe that could help constrain local‐to‐global process‐based models. Furthermore, it provides insights into the large variability of Rs and Rh across vegetation classes and identifies regions and vegetation types with poor model performance that should be prioritized for future data collection.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Spatial Predictions and Associated Uncertainty of Annual Soil Respiration at the Global Scale

Warner

Bond‐Lamberty

Jian

et al. 2019

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

108

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“…Our results are consistent with studies limited to single disturbances [31,32,40,50,92,94]. Soil biogeochemical processes can be represented through a variety of modeling approaches including a simple bulk substrate, moisture and Q10 response [105], a more complex treatment of soil substrate suitability [62,106], or even trait-based approaches [107,108]. If the type of disturbance influences biogeochemical cycling by changing availability of organic substrates and the structure or function of the microbial community, then a more complete representation of microbial processes is required.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Attempts to scale the impacts of different types of tree mortality remain challenging [104]. Heterotrophic function in land surface models is broadly controlled by bulk live and dead biomass, temperature, moisture, and in some cases N, and is strongly dependent on plant productivity [93,105]. Our study suggests that the environmental factors limiting microbial function shift depending on whether fire or pathogeninduced mortality is the disturbance agent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Disturbance Alters the Relative Importance of Topographic and Biogeochemical Controls on Microbial Activity in Temperate Montane Forests

Lybrand

Gallery

Trahan

et al. 2018

Forests

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Abstract:Fire and pathogen-induced tree mortality are the two dominant forms of disturbance in Western U.S. montane forests. We investigated the consequences of both disturbance types on the controls of microbial activity in soils from 56 plots across a topographic gradient one year after the 2012 High Park wildfire in Colorado. Topsoil biogeochemistry, soil CO 2 efflux, potential exoenzyme activities, and microbial biomass were quantified in plots that experienced fire disturbance, beetle disturbance, or both fire and beetle disturbance, and in plots where there was no recent evidence of disturbance. Soil CO 2 efflux, N-, and P-degrading exoenzyme activities in undisturbed plots were positively correlated with soil moisture, estimated from a topographic wetness index; coefficient of determinations ranged from 0.5 to 0.65. Conversely, the same estimates of microbial activities from fire-disturbed and beetle-disturbed soils showed little correspondence to topographically inferred wetness, but demonstrated mostly negative relationships with soil pH (fire only) and mostly positive relationships with DOC/TDN (dissolved organic carbon/total dissolved nitrogen) ratios for both disturbance types. The coefficient of determination for regressions of microbial activity with soil pH and DOC/TDN reached 0.8 and 0.63 in fire-and beetle-disturbed forests, respectively. Drivers of soil microbial activity change as a function of disturbance type, suggesting simple mathematical models are insufficient in capturing the impact of disturbance in forests.

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“…Hashimoto et al (2015) compared the Rh values of 20 earth system models and found that the variation of Rh among the models was very large, ranging from about 42 to 73 PgC/yr with a mean of 54 PgC/yr. Shao et al (2013) also assessed global Rh from 8 earth system models and found that Rh ranged from 41.3 to 71.6 PgC/yr, with a mean of 60 PgC/yr. By averaging the results of these two studies, we got a global mean Rh of 57 PgC/yr.…”

Section: Process-based Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of soil respiration to the global carbon equation

Shang

2016

Journal of Plant Physiology

157

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a b s t r a c tSoil respiration (Rs) is the second largest carbon flux next to GPP between the terrestrial ecosystem (the largest organic carbon pool) and the atmosphere at a global scale. Given their critical role in the global carbon cycle, Rs measurement and modeling issues have been well reviewed in previous studies. In this paper, we briefly review advances in soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition processes and the factors affecting Rs. We examine the spatial and temporal distribution of Rs measurements available in the literature and found that most of the measurements were conducted in North America, Europe, and East Asia, with major gaps in Africa, East Europe, North Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia, especially in dry ecosystems. We discuss the potential problems of measuring Rs on slope soils and propose using obliquely-cut soil collars to solve the existing problems. We synthesize previous estimates of global Rs flux and find that the estimates ranged from 50 PgC/yr to 98 PgC/yr and the error associated with each estimation was also high (4 PgC/yr to 33.2 PgC/yr). Using a newly integrated database of Rs measurements and the MODIS vegetation map, we estimate that the global annual Rs flux is 94.3 PgC/yr with an estimation error of 17.9 PgC/yr at a 95% confidence level. The uneven distribution of Rs measurements limits our ability to improve the accuracy of estimation. Based on the global estimation of Rs flux, we found that Rs is highly correlated with GPP and NPP at the biome level, highlighting the role of Rs in global carbon budgets.

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Soil microbial respiration from observations and Earth System Models

Cited by 69 publications

References 44 publications

Spatial Predictions and Associated Uncertainty of Annual Soil Respiration at the Global Scale

Spatial Predictions and Associated Uncertainty of Annual Soil Respiration at the Global Scale

Disturbance Alters the Relative Importance of Topographic and Biogeochemical Controls on Microbial Activity in Temperate Montane Forests

Contribution of soil respiration to the global carbon equation

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