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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2017, Vol. 16 Issue (04): 967-979    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(16)61449-1
Soil & Fertilization﹒Irrigation﹒Plant Nutrition﹒ Agro-Ecology & Environment Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Effect of experimental warming on soil respiration under conventional tillage and no-tillage farmland in the North China Plain
TU Chun1, 2, LI Fa-dong1, 2, QIAO Yun-feng1, 2, ZHU Nong1, GU Cong-ke1, 2, ZHAO Xin1, 2

 1 Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, P.R.China

2 University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, P.R.China

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Abstract  Understanding the response of soil respiration to global warming in agro-ecosystem is crucial for simulating terrestrial carbon (C) cycle.  We conducted an infrared warming experiment under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) farmland for winter wheat and summer maize rotation system in North China Plain (NCP).  Treatments include CT with and without warming (CTW and CTN), NT with and without warming (NTW and NTN).  The results indicated that warming had no significant effect on soil moisture in irrigated farmland of NCP (P>0.05).  The elevated average soil temperature of 1.1–1.6°C in crop growing periods could increase annual soil CO2 emission by 10.3% in CT filed (P>0.05), but significantly increase it by 12.7% in NT field (P<0.05), respectively.  The disturbances such as plowing, irrigation and precipitation resulted in the obvious soil CO2 emission peaks, which contributed 36.6–40.8% of annual soil cumulative CO2 emission.  Warming would enhance these soil CO2 emission peaks; it might be associated with the warming-induced increase of autotrophic respiration and heterotrophic respiration.  Compared with un-warming treatments, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in warming treatments were significantly increased by 11.6–23.4 and 12.9–23.6%, respectively, indicating that the positive responses of DOC and MBC to warming in both of two tillage systems.  Our study highlights that climate warming may have positive effects on soil C release in NCP in association with response of labile C substrate to warming.
Keywords:   global warming      conventional tillage      no-tillage      soil respiration      dissolved organic carbon      soil microbial biomass carbon  
Received: 05 May 2016   Accepted:
Fund: 

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170414), and the 100 Talents Program of Chinese Academy of Science (2009).

Corresponding Authors:  LI Fa-dong, Tel: +86-10-64889530, E-mail: lifadong@igsnrr.ac.cn   
About author:  TU Chun, Mobile: +86-13126565829, E-mail: tuchunabc@sina.com

Cite this article: 

TU Chun, LI Fa-dong, QIAO Yun-feng, ZHU Nong, GU Cong-ke, ZHAO Xin. 2017. Effect of experimental warming on soil respiration under conventional tillage and no-tillage farmland in the North China Plain. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 16(04): 967-979.

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