Three source-partitioning of CO2 fluxes based on a dual-isotope approach to investigate interactions between soil organic carbon, glucose and straw

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Authors

  • Zhiyi Chen
  • Amit Kumar
  • Philip C. Brookes
  • Yakov Kuzyakov
  • Yu Luo
  • Jianming Xu

Inputs of available organic materials into soil alter the decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM), a process called priming effect. Organic carbon (C) inputs in terrestrial ecosystems are common from various sources (e.g. rhizodeposits, plant residues, microbial necromass) simultaneously, but their interactions as well as mutual effects on SOM decomposition are unknown because multisource partitioning of pools and fluxes was not available. A dual-isotope approach (identical materials except for straw being possessed two 13C abundances) was adopted to partition total CO2 emission from three C sources: SOM, glucose and straw. Cumulative CO2 efflux was quantified into straw-derived (558 μg C g−1), glucose-derived (480 μg C g−1) and SOM-derived (58 μg C g−1) CO2 during the first 7 days of incubation. Glucose or straw addition induced positive SOM priming, whereas glucose combined with straw resulted in higher SOC loss than that induced by single addition of glucose or straw after day 7. The Spearman's correlation showed that the interactions between glucose and straw shifted from increased CO2 evolved during their intensive decomposition (days 1 to 3) to mutual constraint on mineralization during the late stage (days 5 to 7). This study provides evidences for the suitability of the dual-isotope approach to partition multiple sources of CO2 fluxes and C pools, and evaluates their individual or mutual contributions to SOM priming, thus, implicating C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number152163
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume811
Number of pages10
ISSN0048-9697
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10.03.2022

Bibliographical note

This paper was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China ( 41671233 , 41520104001 ). Amit Kumar acknowledges German Ministry of Education and Research (grant number: 031B0508H ) for his contribution. We thank for the support of the “ RUDN University Strategic Academic Leadership program”. Philip C. Brookes was awarded a Thousand Talents Fellowship from the Chinese Government, which is gratefully acknowledged.

Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.

    Research areas

  • Dual-stable isotope labeling, Organic matter decomposition, Soil priming effect, Substrate decomposability, Three sources partitioning
  • Ecosystems Research