Responses of soil greenhouse gas emissions to soil mesofauna invasions and its driving mechanisms in the alpine tundra: A microcosm study

Yujuan Kang; Haitao Wu; Qiang Guan; Zhongsheng Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168255

Responses of soil greenhouse gas emissions to soil mesofauna invasions and its driving mechanisms in the alpine tundra: A microcosm study

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jan 15:908:168255. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168255. Epub 2023 Nov 5.

Authors

Yujuan Kang¹, Haitao Wu², Qiang Guan³, Zhongsheng Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130012, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130012, China; Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China. Electronic address: wuhaitao@iga.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130012, China; Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China.

PMID: 37935268
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168255

Abstract

Climate change is resulting in significant modifications of the altitudinal patterns of soil fauna in mountains, leading to their upward invasion and alteration of soil ecological processes. However, the effects of soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soil mesofauna invasion and their driving mechanisms have not been clearly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we simulated a soil mesofauna invasion from an Erman's birch forest (EB) to the alpine tundra (AT) of the Changbai Mountain in Northeast China. Four treatments were established: no soil mesofauna (S0), native species (SN), invasive species (SI), and invasive species superposed native species (SS). We conducted a 79-day microcosm experiment, utilizing gas chromatography and high-throughput sequencing, to explore the variations in soil greenhouse gas emissions and their driving factors. Results showed that the cumulative CO₂ emissions under SN, SI, and SS, compared with S0, increased by 34.13 %, 73.93 %, and 107.64 % and cumulative N₂O emissions increased by 59.05 %, 101.18 %, and 183.88 %, respectively. Compared to SN, the cumulative emissions of CO₂ and N₂O increased by 29.89 % and 26.31 % under SI and by 54.91 % and 78.59 % under SS, respectively. The impacts of invasive species and native species on greenhouse gases were not a simple additive effect. Abiotic (soil variables) and biotic (soil mesofauna and microbial diversity) factors explained 37.76 % and 44.41 % of the total variations in CO₂ and N₂O emissions, respectively, in which NH₄⁺-N and C: N ratios contributed the largest variations. The contribution of soil mesofauna diversity to the variations in CO₂ and N₂O emissions was higher than that of microbial diversity. The bacterial network graph density was correlated with soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions. Our findings highlight that soil mesofauna invasions increased GHG emissions, and these variations were predominantly explained by biotic rather than abiotic factors.

Keywords: Climate change; Co-occurrence networks; Microcosmic experiment; Mites; Soil biogeochemical cycles; Springtail.

MeSH terms

Carbon Dioxide / analysis
Forests
Greenhouse Gases* / analysis
Methane / analysis
Nitrous Oxide / analysis
Soil / chemistry
Tundra

Substances

Greenhouse Gases
Soil
Carbon Dioxide
Nitrous Oxide
Methane