Emission characteristics of carbon dioxide in the semiarid Stipa grandis steppe in Inner Mongolia, China

摘要

Using the static opaque chamber method, the soil respiration rates (SR ) were measured through the continuous experiments in situ in semiarid Stipa gra ndis steppe in Xilin River Basin of Inner Mongolia, China from June 2001 to June 2003, in parallel, the difference between the SR and the ecosystem respiration rates (TER) were compared. The results indicated that the seasonal variations of the SR and TER were obvious with higher emissions in growing season and a relat ively low efflux level in non-growing season, furthermore, the negative effluxes were found in the observation site in winter; the annual CO2 efflux of total ec osystem ranged from 160.5 gC/(m2·a) to 162.8 gC/(m2·a) and that of soil ranged from 118.7 gC/(m2·a) to 152.3 gC/(m2·a). The annual SR accounted for about 74.0% to 93.5% of the annual TER, but the results of Analysis of Var iance (ANOVA) indicated that the difference between the annual average TER and S R did not reach the significance level of 0.05. The TER was under similar enviro nmental controls as SR, in growing seasons of drought years, the variations of s oil moisture at 0—10 cm and 10—20 cm depth could account for 79.1%—95.6% of t he changes of the SR and TER, but in non-growing season, more than 75% of the va riations of the SR and TER could be explained by the changes of the ground tempe rature of soil surface layers.