Soil moisture as the key factor of atmospheric CH₄ uptake in forest soils under environmental change
Liu, Lei (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Estiarte, Marc (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Peñuelas, Josep (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)

Date:	2019
Abstract:	Methane (CH₄) is an important anthropogenic greenhouse gas that can be produced and consumed by microorganisms in soils. We present a meta-analysis of the potential effects of environmental change on CH₄ uptake by forest soils. Such effects have not been reliably estimated even though aerobic methanotrophs in forest soils are the largest biological sink for atmospheric CH₄. Differences in the annual rate of CH₄ uptake between forests are likely caused by differences in vegetation, microbial communities, and the physical and chemical properties of soil environments, but we found no clear different patterns at annual scale among tropical, temperate, and boreal forests. The meta-analysis indicated that the rates of CH₄ uptake in forest ecosystems were significantly decreased under elevated CO₂ and N enrichment, but the rates increased under drought. The effects of warming on the rates of CH₄ uptake were inconsistent in forest soils, and the response ratio accordingly suggested that a warmer climate would have no significant effect on the rate of CH₄4 uptake. The seasonality of CH4 uptake in natural forest soils and the clear results of the drought experiments evidence the importance of soil moisture. However, our linear model did not unravel a clear negative effect of climatic water surplus nor mean annual precipitation on soil CH₄ uptake. Therefore, process-based and ecosystem-specific models of CH₄ flux are also warranted for predicting the responses of ecosystemic CH₄ fluxes to climate change.
Grants:	European Commission 610028 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2016-79835 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-1005
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	CH₄ uptake ; Forest ; Environmental change ; Elevated CO₂ ; N enrichment ; Drought ; Warming
Published in:	Geoderma, Vol. 355 (Dec. 2019) , art. 113920, ISSN 1872-6259

DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.113920

Postprint 35 p, 739.9 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals) > Imbalance-P
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