Responses of a rice–wheat rotation agroecosystem to experimental warming. Issue 6 (6th September 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cheng, Hao; Ren, Wenwei; Ding, Lele; Liu, Zengfu; Fang, Changming
• Is Part Of: Ecological research. Volume 28:Issue 6(2013)
• Page Start: 959
• Page End: 967
• Publication Date: 2013-09-06
• Subjects: Evapotranspiration -- Experimental warming -- Rice–winter wheat rotation -- Soil respiration; Ecology -- Periodicals; Ecology -- Japan -- Periodicals; Écologie; Japon; Ecology; Japan; Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Periodicals; 577.05
• DOI: 10.1007/s11284-013-1078-1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0912-3814

Abstract

Abstract: Climate change is likely to affect agroecosystems in many ways. This study was performed to investigate how a rice–winter wheat rotation agroecosystem in southeast China would respond to global warming. By using an infrared heater system, the soil surface temperature was maintained about 1.5 °C above ambient milieu over 3 years. In the third growing season (2009–2010), the evapotranspiration (ET) rate, crop production, soil respiration, and soil carbon pool were monitored. The ET rate was 23 % higher in the warmed plot as compared to the control plot during the rice paddy growing season, and the rice grain yield was 16.3 % lower, but there was no significant difference in these parameters between the plots during the winter wheat‐growing season. The phenology of the winter wheat shifted under experimental warming, and ET may decrease late in the winter wheat‐growing season. Experimental warming significantly enhanced soil respiration, with mean annual soil respiration rates of 2.57 ± 0.17 and 1.96 ± 0.06 μmol CO2 m −2 s −1 observed in the warmed and control plots, respectively. After 3 years of warming, a significant decrease in the total organic carbon was observed, but only in the surface soil (0–5 cm). Warming also stimulated the belowground biomass, which may have compensated for any heat‐induced loss of soil organic carbon. Paddy rice seemed to be more vulnerable to warming than winter wheat in terms of water‐use efficiency and grain production.