Warm- and cold- season grazing affect soil respiration differently in alpine grasslands

Wang, Hao; Liu, Huiying; Wang, Yonghui; Xu, Wanjin; Liu, Anrong; Ma, Zhijun; Mi, Zhaorong; Zhang, Zhenhua; Wang, Shiping; He, Jin‐Sheng

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2017.07.041

Cited by 24 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Consistent with our results, previous reports found that livestock grazing reduced the mean annual soil respiration rates in typical steppes of Mongolia (Hou et al, 2016) and in rangelands of Central Iran (Raiesi & Asadi, 2006). In contrast, grazing in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau Wang et al, 2017) and in meadow steppes on the Mongolia Plateau (Hou et al, 2016;Sharkhuu et al, 2016) did not alter and some cases even increased soil respiration because of grazing-induced increases in soil temperature and root biomass.…”

Section: Effects Of Long-term Grazing On Soil Respirationsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Consistent with our results, previous reports found that livestock grazing reduced the mean annual soil respiration rates in typical steppes of Mongolia (Hou et al., ) and in rangelands of Central Iran (Raiesi & Asadi, ). In contrast, grazing in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau (Lin et al., ; Wang et al., ) and in meadow steppes on the Mongolia Plateau (Hou et al., ; Sharkhuu et al., ) did not alter and some cases even increased soil respiration because of grazing‐induced increases in soil temperature and root biomass. Unlike results from a previous meta‐analyses at the global‐scale (Zhou et al., ), the current results from a grassland of a semi‐arid steppe did not indicate that soil respiration increased under light grazing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In previous studies, the effects of livestock grazing on soil respiration have been inconsistent, that is, grazing has decreased soil respiration in some studies (Cao et al, 2004;Hou et al, 2016;Raiesi & Asadi, 2006) but has had no effect (Cui et al, 2014;Lin et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2017) or even increased soil respiration in other studies (Chen, Zhou, et al, 2016;Sharkhuu et al, 2016;Zhou et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous studies, the effects of livestock grazing on soil respiration have been inconsistent, that is, grazing has decreased soil respiration in some studies (Cao et al., ; Hou et al., ; Raiesi & Asadi, ) but has had no effect (Cui et al., ; Lin et al., ; Wang et al., ) or even increased soil respiration in other studies (Chen, Zhou, et al., ; Sharkhuu et al., ; Zhou et al., ). Livestock grazing might alter root respiration by altering primary production and plant community composition and by consequently changing root growth and root biomass (Holland & Detling, ; Wang et al., ). By altering plant community structure and inputs of litter and root exudates to soils, livestock grazing is likely to alter soil microbial activity and therefore alter soil microbial respiration (Chen, Zhou, et al., ; Zhou et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Livestock grazing might alter root respiration by altering primary production and plant community composition and by consequently changing root growth and root biomass (Holland & Detling, 1990;Wang et al, 2017). By altering plant community structure and inputs of litter and root exudates to soils, livestock grazing is likely to alter soil microbial activity and therefore alter soil microbial respiration (Chen, Zhou, et al, 2016;Zhou et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of growing‐season soil respiration to water and nitrogen addition as affected by grazing intensity

Huang

et al. 2018

Functional Ecology

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Most grasslands in the world, including the semi‐arid steppe in China, are threatened by nitrogen deposition, precipitation change and livestock grazing, which greatly affect soil carbon processes (e.g. soil respiration). Although the individual effects of nitrogen deposition and precipitation change on soil respiration are well understood, how their effects on soil respiration are altered by different grazing intensities is unclear. To determine how the effects of nitrogen deposition and precipitation change on soil respiration are affected by grazing intensity, we conducted an experiment in a semi‐arid steppe involving areas that experienced 10 years of no, light, moderate or heavy grazing. These areas were treated with water addition (110 mm, 30% of the mean annual precipitation) and nitrogen addition (10.5 g m−2 year−1). Our results showed that relative to no grazing, grazing decreased growing‐season soil respiration by 10%–19%. The decline in soil respiration was mainly via its negative effects on above‐ground net primary productivity (ANPP) and the fungi:bacteria ratio with light grazing, mainly via its negative effects on ANPP and leaf nitrogen content with moderate grazing, and mainly via its negative effects on ANPP, root biomass, microbial biomass and the fungi:bacteria ratio with heavy grazing. Across all grazing intensities, both water and water+nitrogen addition increased growing‐season soil respiration, whereas nitrogen addition decreased growing‐season soil respiration. Water addition increased growing‐season soil respiration mostly via its positive effect on ANPP with no grazing and with low grazing, and mostly via its positive effects on both plant and microbial variables with moderate and heavy grazing. The pathways determining the nitrogen addition‐induced decline in growing‐season soil respiration were the same within each of the four levels of grazing and mostly resulted from its negative effect on microbial variables. Our results indicate that the effects of climate change on growing‐season soil respiration and other soil carbon processes in grasslands depend on grazing intensity. The findings suggest that grazing intensity should be considered in future manipulation experiments and should be included in carbon models to accurately simulate soil carbon dynamics under scenarios of climate change in grassland ecosystems. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13118/suppinfo is available for this article.

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