Biophysical warming patterns of an open-top chamber and its short-term influence on a Phragmites wetland ecosystem in China

Abstract

Passive-warming, open-top chambers (OTCs) are widely applied for studying the effects of future climate warming on coastal wetlands. In this study, a set of six OTCs were established at a Phragmites wetland located in the Yellow River Delta of Dongying City, China. With data collected through online transmission and in-situ sensors, the attributes and patterns of realized OTCs warming are demonstrated. The authors also quantified the preliminary influence of experimental chamber warming on plant traits. OTCs produced an elevated average air temperature of 0.8°C (relative to controls) during the growing season (June to October) of 2018, and soil temperatures actually decreased by 0.54°C at a depth of 5 cm and 0.46°C at a depth of 30 cm in the OTCs. Variations in diel patterns of warming depend greatly on the heat sources of incoming radiation in the daytime versus soil heat flux at night. Warming effects were often larger during instantaneous analyses and influenced OTCs air temperatures from −2.5°C to 8.3°C dependent on various meteorological conditions at any given time, ranging from cooling influences from vertical heat exchange and vegetation to radiation-associated warming. Night-time temperature depressions in the OTCs were due to the low turbulence inside OTCs and changes in surface soil-atmosphere heat transfer. Plant shoot density, basal diameter, and biomass of Phragmites decreased by 23.2%, 6.3%, and 34.0%, respectively, under experimental warming versus controls, and plant height increased by 4.3%, reflecting less carbon allocation to stem structures as plants in the OTCs experienced simultaneous wind buffering. While these passive-warming OTCs created the desired warming effects both to the atmosphere and soils, pest damages on the plant leaves and lodging within the OTCs were extensive and serious, creating the need to consider control options for these chambers and the replicated OTCs studies underway in other Chinese Phragmites marshes (Panjin and Yancheng).

Keywords

Open-top chambers (OTCs) warming / Phragmites australis wetland / Short-term ecosystem impact / Climate warming / Soil heat flux Soil-atmosphere heat transfer / Ecological geological engineering / Hydrogeological engineering / Yellow River Delta

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Si-yuan Ye, Xue-yang Yu, Ken W. Krauss, Samantha K. Chapman, and Hans Brix conceived of the presented idea. Xue-yang Yu, Li-xin Pei, and Liu-juan Xie experimented. All authors discussed the results, provided critical feedback, and contributed to the final manuscript.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgment

This study was jointly funded by the Marine S&T Fund of Shandong Province for the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao)(2022QNLM 040003-3), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFE0109600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A20558, 41240022, 41876057, 40872167, 41602143), China Geological Survey (1212010611402, GZH201200503, and DD20160144), and by in-kind support from the Land Carbon Program and Land Change Science R&D Program of the United States Geological Survey.

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