Effect of temperature and moisture on soil organic carbon mineralization ofpredominantly permafrost peatland in the Great Hing’an Mountains,Northeastern China
Xianwei Wang , Xiuzhen Li , Yuanman Hu , Jiujun Lv , Ju Sun , Zongmei Li , Zhifeng Wu
DOI:
Received July 23, 2009,Revised April 08, 2010, Accepted , Available online
Volume 22,2010,Pages 1057-1066
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Boreal peatlands represent a large global carbon pool. The relationships between carbon mineralization, soil temperature and moisture
in the permafrost peatlands of the Great Hing’an Mountains, China, were examined. The CO2 emissions were measured during
laboratory incubations of samples from four sites under di erent temperatures (5, 10, 15, and 20°C) and moisture contents (0%, 30%,
60%, 100% water holding capacity (WHC) and completely water saturated). Total carbon mineralization ranged from 15.51 to 112.92
mg C under the treatments for all sites. Carbon mineralization rates decreased with soil depth, increased with temperature, and reached
the highest at 60% WHC at the same temperature. The calculated temperature coe cient (Q10) values ranged from 1.84 to 2.51 with the
soil depths and moisture. However, the values were not significantly a ected by soil moisture and depth for all sites due to the di erent
peat properties (P > 0.05). We found that the carbon mineralization could be successfully predicted as a two-compartment function
with temperature and moisture (R2 > 0.96) and total carbon mineralization was significantly a ected by temperature and moisture (P <
0.05). Thus, temperature and moisture would play important roles in carbon mineralization of permafrost peatlands in the Great Hing’an
Mountains, indicating that the permafrost peatlands would be sensitive to the environment change, and the permafrost peatlands would
be potentially mineralized under future climate change.
