[Respiration from density fractions of two cultivated soils and its temperature sensitivity]

To investigate respiration from density fractions of cultivated soils and its temperature sensitivity, laboratory incubations of upland and paddy soils were carried out for a period of 63 days at four temperature levels of 5, 15, 25 and 35 °C. The upland and paddy soil samples were taken from Pingyi of Shandong Province and Taojiang of Hunan Province, respectively. CO2 efflux from light fraction (LF), heavy fraction (HF) and bulk soil (BS) was measured during the incubation. The results indicated that bulk soil respiration was significantly higher than either light or heavy fraction respiration regardless of soil type. Respiration from HF was higher than that from LF in the upland soil. In the temperature range from 5 to 25 °C, light and heavy fraction respiration in the paddy soil did not show significant difference, while the HF exhibited higher respiration than the LF at 35 °C. Over the 63-day incubation with various temperatures, cumulative respiration from the LF, the HF and the BS accounted for 0.3%-2.8%, 0.4%-3.7% and 0.6%-7.0% of the original LF, HF and BS carbon in the upland soil, and 0.4%-3.0%, 0.3%-3.8% and 0.7%-5.3% of their original carbon in the paddy soil. The temperature sensitivity of the CO2 efflux from the LF, HF and BS, which was expressed as Q10 value, declined as the incubation proceeded. The Q10 values for the HF were generally higher than the values for the LF in the paddy soil, while the difference of Q10 values between the HF and the LF was divergent in the upland soil. In the temperature range from 5 to 25 °C, the Q10 values for BS respiration were higher in the upland soil than in the paddy soil, but it was opposite in the temperature range from 25 to 35 °C. Our results using the site-specific soils suggested that the decomposition of organic carbon in the upland soil was faster and could be more sensitive to temperature change than in the paddy soil.