Spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration in a Larix gmelinii forest and the response to prescribed fire in the Greater Xing′an Mountains, China

Abstract

This study was conducted in a fire-prone region in the Greater Xing’an Mountains, the primary forested area of northeastern China. We measured soil respiration and the affecting soil factors, i.e., soil microbial biomass and soil moisture, within an experimental plot of Larix gmelinii Rupr. A low-intensity, prescribed fire was applied as the treatment. Traditional descriptive statistics and geostatistics were used to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration and the response of respiration to fire disturbance. Coefficients of variation (CVs) for pre-fire and post-fire soil respiration were 23.4 and 32.0 %, respectively. CVs for post-fire soil respiration increased significantly, with a moderate variation of all CVs. Soil respiration pre-fire was significantly correlated with soil microbial biomass carbon, biomass nitrogen, and soil moisture (W); post-fire soil respiration was not correlated with these factors. From the geostatistical analyses, the C ₀ + C (sill) for post-fire soil respiration increased significantly, indicating that the post-fire spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration increased significantly. The nugget effect (n _c) of soil respiration and the affecting factors pre-fire and post-fire disturbance were in the range of 12.5–50 %, with strong spatial autocorrelation. Fire disturbance changed the components of spatial heterogeneity, and the proportion of functional heterogeneity increased significantly post-fire. The ranges (a) for pre-fire and post-fire soil respiration were 81.0 and 68.2 m, respectively. The homogeneity of the distribution of post-fire soil respiration decreased and the spatial heterogeneity increased, thus the range for post-fire soil respiration decreased significantly. The fractal dimension (D) for soil respiration increased post-fire, the spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration affected by random components increased, indicating that the change in spatial heterogeneity of post-fire soil respiration should be considered within the scale of the forest stand. Following Kriging interpolation, the increase in the patchiness of post-fire soil respiration was illustrated using a contour map. Based on these preliminary results, the change in the spatial heterogeneity of post-fire soil respiration was likely caused by changes in the distribution of soil moisture and microbial activity within the experimental plot at the scale of the forest stand.

Keywords

Prescribed fire / Soil respiration / Spatial heterogeneity / Larix gmelinii forest

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