Climate change reduces the net sink of CH₄ and N₂O in a semiarid grassland

Authors

Feike A. Dijkstra, University of SydneyFollow
Jack A. Morgan, USDA-ARS
Ronald F. Follett, USDA-ARSFollow
Daniel R. Lecain, USDA-ARSFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2013

Citation

Global Change Biology (2013) 19, 1816–1826, doi: 10.1111/gcb.12182

Comments

U.S. Government Work

Abstract

Atmospheric concentrations of methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) have increased over the last 150 years because of human activity. Soils are important sources and sinks of both potent greenhouse gases where their production and consumption are largely regulated by biological processes. Climate change could alter these processes thereby affecting both rate and direction of their exchange with the atmosphere. We examined how a rise in atmospheric CO₂ and temperature affected CH₄ and N₂O fluxes in a well-drained upland soil (volumetric water content ranging between 6% and 23%) in a semiarid grassland during five growing seasons. We hypothesized that responses of CH₄ and N₂O fluxes to elevated CO₂ and warming would be driven primarily by treatment effects on soil moisture. Previously we showed that elevated CO₂ increased and warming decreased soil moisture in this grassland. We therefore expected that elevated CO₂ and warming would have opposing effects on CH₄ and N₂O fluxes. Methane was taken up throughout the growing season in all 5 years. A bell-shaped relationship was observed with soil moisture with highest CH₄ uptake at intermediate soil moisture. Both N₂O emission and uptake occurred at our site with some years showing cumulative N₂O emission and other years showing cumulative N₂O uptake. Nitrous oxide exchange switched from net uptake to net emission with increasing soil moisture. In contrast to our hypothesis, both elevated CO₂ and warming reduced the sink of CH₄ and N₂O expressed in CO₂ equivalents (across 5 years by 7% and 11% for elevated CO₂ and warming respectively) suggesting that soil moisture changes were not solely responsible for this reduction. We conclude that in a future climate this semiarid grassland may become a smaller sink for atmospheric CH₄ and N₂O expressed in CO₂-equivalents.