The effects of biological soil crusts on soil respiration in the Tengger Desert, north-central China
Biological soil crusts (BSCs) have long been recognized as a ubiquitous component and can influence many ecological processes in arid ecosystems. However, little is known regarding their effects on soil respiration. In this study, the soil respiration rates were compared in the area covered by the BSCs with different development ages and in sandy area in the Shapotou restored vegetation area in 2007 and 2008 using the alkali absorption method. The results showed that the formation and development of BSCs significantly increased soil respiration rates. The respiration rates increased with the development levels with the moss dominated crust has the largest carbon efflux and the physical crust has the minimal one. And also, the amounts of soil microbes, an important contributor to soil respiration, were also analyzed through extracting soil microbial DNA (SMD). The total amounts of SMD had a similar increase trend accompanied with the successional sequence of BSCs. The SMD in the crusts layer is quite larger than that in the sub-layer. It can be concluded that the BSCs can promote soil respiration rates through their development and by means of affecting the total amount of SMD in horizontal and vertical soil profiles.
Soil respiration Biological soil crust Soil microbial DNA
Yanhong Gao Lichao Liu Xinrong Li Zhishan Zhang Xin Zhao Rongliang Jia Haotian Yang
Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
国际会议
西安
英文
576-580
2010-10-11（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）