Abstract
Elucidating soil carbon cycle in karst areas has been a major research focus, while the relationship between karst soil carbon transfer and karst carbon sinks is unclear. A comparative study of soil respiration rates, δ 13C values of CO2 from soil respiration, and CO2 concentrations in forest soil layers was conducted from September 2006 to August 2008 between karst and clasolite areas of the Maocun karst underground river catchment. The main results are as follows: (1) the soil respiration rate in limestone soil from the karst area is apparently lower than that in red soil from the clasolite area. The soil respiration rate in the karst area varied from 23.12 to 271.26 mgC/m2 h, with an average of 111.57 mgC/m2 h, while the soil respiration rate in the clasolite area varied from 51.60 to 326.28 mgC/m2 h, with an average of 148.99 mgC/m2 h. Taking the averages into account, the soil respiration rate in limestone soil was 25.12 % less than that in red soil; (2) the δ 13C values of soil respiration in the karst and clasolite areas were −29.35 to −18.26‰ and −29.21 to −22.60‰, respectively, with respective mean values of −22.68 and −26.21‰. The δ 13C value of soil respiration in the karst area was heavier than that in the clasolite area; (3) the CO2 concentration of limestone soil profiles had a bi-directional gradient, which was more obvious in seasons with good moisture and air temperature conditions. In contrast, the CO2 concentration of red soil profile had a uni-directional gradient, that is to say, the deeper the red soil layer, the higher the CO2 concentration. Taking into account the mean values of CO2 concentration, the CO2 concentration of limestone soil ranged between 0.05 and 0.60 %, with an annual average of 0.25 %. The CO2 concentration of red soil ranged between 0.05 and 1.09 %, with an annual average of 0.57 %, which indicated that the lower soil layer CO2 could be consumed and absorbed by carbonate rock dissolution at the soil/rock interface in the karst area. In other words, karst processes in soil represented one of the carbon sinks.
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Acknowledgments
This paper was supported by the Natural Scientific Foundation for Young Scientists of China Grant No. 41402326; Natural Scientific Foundation for Young Scientists of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China under Grant No. 2013GXNSFBA019217; the China Geological Survey under Grant Nos. 1212010911062, S-2010-KP03- 07-02 and 12120113005300; the Ministry of Land and Resources under Grant No. 201211086-05 and Institute of Karst Geology, CAGS under Grant No. 2012005. The authors would like to thank the reviewers who read the first draft of this paper for their constructive comments that helped improve the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Yonghua Yang and YikYu Au for their help in improving the language of the paper.
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Yang, H., Zhou, L., Huang, L. et al. A comparative study of soil carbon transfer between forest soils in subtropical karst and clasolite areas and the karst carbon sink effect in Guilin, Guangxi, China. Environ Earth Sci 74, 921–928 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3903-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3903-4