Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:07:23.018Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Composition in Soil Carbon Dioxide and Free Oxygen within Deep Ultisols at the Calhoun CZO, South Carolina, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2018

Alexander Cherkinsky ,
Zachary Brecheisen  and
Daniel Richter
Alexander Cherkinsky*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Rd., Athens, GA 30602, USA
Zachary Brecheisen
Affiliation:
Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Daniel Richter
Affiliation:
Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment, Durham, NC 27708, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In order to evaluate effects of three land uses on isotopic compositions of CO2 and O2 of soil air to 5 m soil depth, a field study was conducted in the Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory, located in the subtropical climate of the Southern Piedmont of South Carolina, USA. Soil gas reservoirs were installed in ecosystems with three different land uses, each replicated three times: (i) reference hardwood stands that were never cultivated; (ii) currently cultivated plots; (iii) pine stands, which had been used for growing cotton in 19th century but were abandoned in about the 1930s and 1940s when they were regenerated with pines that are today 70–80 yr old. In addition to soil CO2 and O2 concentration measurements, soil gas samples were analyzed for Δ14C, δ13C, and δ18O. Stable carbon isotopic composition becomes lighter with the depth in soils of all three land uses: in the cultivated site δ13C decreases from –18‰ at 0.5 m to –21‰ at 5 m, in pine site from –22 to –25‰, and in hardwood from –21.5 to –24.5‰, respectively. Δ14C increased with depth from 40 to 60‰ in the top 0.5 m to about 80–140‰ at 5 m depending on land use. While surficial soils had relatively similar Δ14C in CO2, between 40 to 60‰ at 0.5 m, at 3 and 5 m, cultivated soils had the highest Δ14C, hardwood the lowest, and pine in between, a pattern that emphasizes the importance of contemporary respired CO2 in hardwood stands. Oxygen isotopic composition of CO2 did not change with depth, whereas free O2 was greatly enriched in lower horizons of forest soils, which we attribute to strong fractionation by respiration.

Keywords

14C AMS analysisrespirationsoil carbon dioxidestable isotope
Type
Soil
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 60 , Special Issue 5: 2nd Radiocarbon in the Environment Conference, Debrecen, Hungary, July 3–7, 2017 Part 2 of 2 and Radiocarbon & Diet 2 International Conference Aarhus, Denmark, June 20–23, 2017 , October 2018 , pp. 1357 - 1366
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 2nd Radiocarbon in the Environment Conference, Debrecen, Hungary, 3–7 July 2017

References

REFERENCES

Amundson, R, Stern, L, Baiseden, T, Wang, Y. 1998. The isotopic composition of soil and soil respired CO2 . Geoderma 82:83–114.Google Scholar
Angert, A, Luz, B, Yakir, D. 2001. Fractionation of oxygen isotopes by respiration and diffusion in soils and its implications for isotopic composition of atmospheric O2 . Global Biogeochemical Cycles 15:871–880.Google Scholar
Angert, A, Luz, B. 2001. Fractionation of oxygen isotopes by root respiration: Implications for the isotopic composition of atmospheric O2 . Geochimica et Cosmochemica Acta 65:1695–1701.Google Scholar
Billings, SA, Hirmas, D, Sullivan, PL, Lehmeier, CA, Bagchi, S, Min, K, Brecheisen, Z, Hauser, E, Stair, R, Flournoy, R, Richter, DD. 2018. Loss of deep roots limits biogenic agents of soil development that are only partially restored by decades of forest regeneration. Elem Sci Anth 6:34. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.287.Google Scholar
Bloom, AA, Exbrayat, JF, van der Velde, IR, Feng, L, Williams, M. 2016. The decadal state of the terrestrial carbon cycle: Global retrievals of terrestrial carbon allocation, pools, and residence times. Proceedings of National Academy of Science 113(5):1285–1290.Google Scholar
Cherkinsky, A, Culp, RA, Dvoracek, DK, Noakes, JE. 2010. Status of the AMS facility at the University of Georgia. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physical Research B 258:867–870.Google Scholar
Czimczik, CI, Trumbore, SE, Carbone, MS, Winston, GG. 2006. Changing sources of soil respiration with time since fire in boreal forest. Global Change Biology 12:957–971.Google Scholar
De Camargo, PB, Trumbore, SE, Martinelli, LA, Davidson, EA, Nepstad, DC, Victoria, RL. 1999. Soil carbon dynamics in regrowing forest of eastern Amazonia. Global Change Biology 5:693–702.Google Scholar
Dung, P, Shen, CD, Wang, N, Yi, WX, Ding, XF, Fu, DP, Liu, KX, Zhou, LP. 2010. Turnover rate of soil organic matter and origin of soil 14CO2 in deep soil from subtropical forest in dinghushan biosphere reserve, South China. Radiocarbon 52(2-3):1422–1434.Google Scholar
Dorr, H, Minnich, KO. 1986. Annual variation of the 14C content of soil CO2 . Radiocarbon 28(2A):338–345.Google Scholar
Egan, J, Nickerson, N, Phillips, C, Risk, D. 2014. A numerical examination of 14CO2 chamber methodologies for sampling Ar the soil surface. Radiocarbon 56(3):1175–1188.Google Scholar
Gaudinski, JB, Trumbore, SE, Davidson, EA, Zheng, SH. 2000. Soil carbon cycling in a temperate forest: radiocarbon-based estimates of residence times, sequestration rates, and partitioning of fluxes. Biogeochemistry 51(1):33–69.Google Scholar
Francey, RJ, Tans, PP. 1987. Latitudinal variation in oxygen-18 of atmospheric CO2 . Nature 327:495–497.Google Scholar
Hahn, V, Hogberg, P, Buchhmann, N. 2006. 14C – a tool for separation of autotrophic and heterotrophic soil respiration. Global Change Biology 12:972–982.Google Scholar
Hall, SJ, Silver, WL. 2013. Iron oxidation stimulates organic matter decomposition in humid tropical forest soils. Global Change Biology 19:2804–2813.Google Scholar
Hicks Pries, CE, Shuur, EAG, Crummer, KG. 2013. Thwaing permafrost increases old soil authotrophic respiration in tundra: Partitioning ecosystem respiration using δ13C and Δ14C. Global Change Biology 19:649–661.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Rakowski, AZ. 2013 Atmospheric radiocarbon for the period 1950–2010. Radiocarbon 55(4):2059–2072.Google Scholar
Koarashi, J, Hockaday, WC, Masiello, CA, Trumbore, SE. 2012. Dynamics of decadally cycling carbon in subsurface soil. J. Geophys. Res 117, G03033. doi:10.1029/2012JG002034.Google Scholar
Koarashi, J, Iida, T, Moriizumi, J, Agano, T. 2004. Evaluation of 14C abundance in soil respiration using accelerator mass spectrometry. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 75:117–132.Google Scholar
Kyzyakov, Y. 2006. Sources of CO2 efflux from soil, review of partitioning methods. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 38:425–448.Google Scholar
Kuzyakov, Y, Larionova, AA. 2005. Root and rhizomicrobial respiration: A review of approaches to estimate respiration by autotrophic organisms in soil. J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci 168:503–520.Google Scholar
Luo, Y, Zhou, X. 2006. Soil Respiration and Environment. Elsevier. 328 p.Google Scholar
Luz, B, Barkan, E. 2011. The isotopic composition of atmospheric O2 . Global Biogeochemical Cycles 25 GB3001. doi.10.1029/2010GB003883.Google Scholar
Mobley, ML, Lajtha, K, Kramer, MG, Bacon, AR, Heine, PR, Richter, DdeB. 2015. Surficial gains and subsoil losses of soil carbon and nitrogen during secondary forest development. Global Change Biology 21:986–996.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Brown, TA, Reimer, RW. 2004. Discussion: Reporting and calibration of post bomb 14C data. Radiocarbon 46(3):1299–1304.Google Scholar
Phillips, CL, McFarlane, , Risk, D, Desai, AR. 2013. Biological and physical influence on soil 14CO2 seasonal dynamics in temperate hardwood forest. Biogeosciences 10:7999–8012.Google Scholar
Richter, DdeB, Billings, SA. 2015. “One physical system”: Tansley’s ecosystem as Earth’s critical zone. New Phytologist 206:900–912.Google Scholar
Richter, DD, Markewitz, D, Trumbore, SE, Wells, CG. 1999. Rapid accumulation and turnover of soil carbon in a re-establishing forest. Nature 400:56–58.Google Scholar
Shuur, EAG, Trumbore, SE. 2006 Partitioning sources of soil respiration in boreal spruce forest using radiocarbon. Global Change Biology 12:165–176.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–363.Google Scholar
Trumbore, SE. 2000. Age of soil organic matter and soil respiration: radiocarbon constraints on belowground C dynamics. Ecological Applications 10(2):399–411.Google Scholar
Wang, Y, Hu, C, Ming, H, Oenema, O, Schaefer, DA, Dong, W, Zhang, Y, Li, X. 2014. Methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide fluxes in soil profile under a winter wheat-summer maize rotation in the North China Plain. PLos One 9(6):e98445.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Cherkinsky et al. supplementary material

Cherkinsky et al. supplementary material 1

Download Cherkinsky et al. supplementary material(File)
File 168.3 KB