Differential soil respiration responses to changing hydrologic regimes

Authors

Vincent J. Pacific, University of Colorado at Boulder
Brian L. McGlynn, University of Colorado at Boulder
Diego Andrés Riveros-Iregui, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Howard E. Epstein, University of VirginiaFollow
Daniel J. Welsch, Canaan Valley Institute, Davis, West Virginia

Date of this Version

2009

Comments

Published in WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 45, W07201, doi:10.1029/2009WR007721, 2009. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union. Used by permission.

Abstract

Soil respiration is tightly coupled to the hydrologic cycle (i.e., snowmelt and precipitation timing and magnitude). We examined riparian and hillslope soil respiration across a wet (2005) and a dry (2006) growing season in a subalpine catchment. When comparing the riparian zones, cumulative CO₂ efflux was 33% higher, and peak efflux occurred 17 days earlier during the dry growing season. In contrast, cumulative efflux in the hillslopes was 8% lower, and peak efflux occurred 10 days earlier during the drier growing season. Our results demonstrate that soil respiration was more sensitive to drier growing season conditions in wet (riparian) landscape positions.