Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Winter forest soil respiration controlled by climate and microbial community composition

Nature volume 439, pages 711–714 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Most terrestrial carbon sequestration at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere occurs in seasonal, montane forest ecosystems1. Winter respiratory carbon dioxide losses from these ecosystems are high, and over half of the carbon assimilated by photosynthesis in the summer can be lost the following winter2,3. The amount of winter carbon dioxide loss is potentially susceptible to changes in the depth of the snowpack; a shallower snowpack has less insulation potential, causing colder soil temperatures and potentially lower soil respiration rates. Recent climate analyses have shown widespread declines in the winter snowpack of mountain ecosystems in the western USA and Europe that are coupled to positive temperature anomalies4,5,6. Here we study the effect of changes in snow cover on soil carbon cycling within the context of natural climate variation. We use a six-year record of net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange in a subalpine forest to show that years with a reduced winter snowpack are accompanied by significantly lower rates of soil respiration. Furthermore, we show that the cause of the high sensitivity of soil respiration rate to changes in snow depth is a unique soil microbial community that exhibits exponential growth and high rates of substrate utilization at the cold temperatures that exist beneath the snow. Our observations suggest that a warmer climate may change soil carbon sequestration rates in forest ecosystems owing to changes in the depth of the insulating snow cover.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Responses of NEE to air and soil temperature as influenced by SWE for the indicated years.
Figure 2: The temperature sensitivity of soil respiration rate beneath the snow pack.
Figure 3: Microbial growth kinetics in soils collected in summer and late winter, determined by SIGR experiments at temperatures ranging from 0 to 14 °C.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schimel, D., Kittel, T., Running, S., Monson, R., Turnipseed, A. & Anderson, D. Carbon sequestration studied in western US mountains. Eos 83, 445–449 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Monson, R. K. et al. Climatic influences on net ecosystem CO2 exchange during the transition from wintertime carbon source to springtime carbon sink in a high-elevation, subalpine forest. Oecologia 146, 130–147 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hubbard, R. M., Ryan, M. G., Elder, K. & Rhodes, C. C. Seasonal patterns in soil surface CO2 flux under snow cover in 50 and 300 year old subalpine forests. Biogeochemistry 73, 93–107 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Mote, P. W., Hamlet, A. F., Clark, M. P. & Lettenmaier, D. T. Declining mountain snow pack in Western North America. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 86, 39–49 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Laternser, M. & Schneebeli, M. Long-term snow climate trends of the Swiss Alps (1931–99). Int. J. Climatol. 23, 733–750 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Scherrer, S. C., Appenzeller, C. & Laternser, M. Trends in Swiss alpine snow days—The role of local and large-scale climate variability. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L13215, doi:10.1029/2004GL020255 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Valentini, R. et al. Respiration as the main determinant of carbon balance in European forests. Nature 404, 861–865 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Groffman, P. M. et al. Colder soils in a warmer world: A snow manipulation study in a northern hardwood forest ecosystem. Biogeochemistry 56, 135–150 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fitzhugh, R. D. et al. Soil freezing and the acid-base chemistry of soil solutions in a northern hardwood forest. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 67, 1897–1908 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Decker, K. L. M., Wang, D., Waite, C. & Scherbatskoy, T. Snow removal and ambient air temperature effects on forest soil temperatures in Northern Vermont. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 67, 1234–1242 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Lloyd, J. & Taylor, J. A. On the temperature dependence of soil respiration. Funct. Ecol. 8, 315–323 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kätterer, T., Reichstein, M., Andrén, O. & Lomander, A. Temperature dependence of organic matter decomposition: a critical review using literature data analyzed with different models. Biol. Fertil. Soils 27, 258–262 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Monson, R. K. et al. Carbon sequestration in a high-elevation, subalpine forest. Glob. Change Biol. 8, 1–20 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Mikan, C. J., Schimel, J. P. & Doyle, A. P. Temperature controls of microbial respiration in arctic tundra soils above and below freezing. Soil Biol. Biochem. 34, 1785–1795 (2002)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Patterson, D. E. & Smith, M. W. The measurement of unfrozen water content by time domain reflectometry—results from laboratory tests. Can. Geotech. J. 18, 131–144 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Brooks, P. D., McKnight, D. & Elder, K. Carbon limitation of soil respiration under winter snowpacks: potential feedbacks between growing season and winter carbon fluxes. Glob. Change Biol. 11, 231–238 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Burnett, A. W., Kirby, M. E., Mullins, H. T. & Patterson, W. P. Increasing Great Lake-effect snowfall during the twentieth century: A regional response to global warming? J. Clim. 16, 3535–3542 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Turnipseed, A. A., Anderson, D. E., Blanken, P. D., Baugh, W. M. & Monson, R. K. Airflows and turbulent flux measurements in mountainous terrain. Part 1. Canopy and local effects. Agric. For. Meteorol. 119, 1–21 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Turnipseed, A. A., Anderson, D. E., Burns, S., Blanken, P. D. & Monson, R. K. Airflows and turbulent flux measurements in mountainous terrain. Part 2. Mesoscale effects. Agric. For. Meteorol. 125, 187–205 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Sommerfeld, R. A., Mosier, A. R. & Musselman, R. C. CO2, CH4, and N2O flux through a Wyoming snowpack. Nature 361, 140–142 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Brooks, P. D., Schmidt, S. K. & Williams, M. W. Winter production of CO2 and N2O from alpine tundra: environmental controls and relationship to inter-system C and N fluxes. Oecologia 110, 403–413 (1997)

    ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Mast, M. A., Wickland, K. P., Striegl, R. T. & Clow, D. W. Winter fluxes of CO2 and CH4 from subalpine soils in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 12, 607–620 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Massman, W. J. et al. A model investigation of turbulence-driven pressure-pumping effects on the rate of diffusion of CO2, N2O, and CH4 through layered snowpacks. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 18851–18863 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Swanson, A. L., Lefer, B. L., Stroud, V. & Atlas, E. Trace gas emissions through a winter snowpack in the subalpine ecosystem at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L03805, doi:10.1029/2004GL021809 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Williams, M. W., Brooks, P. D., Mosier, A. & Tonnessen, K. A. Mineral nitrogen transformations in and under seasonal snow in a high-elevation catchment, Rocky Mountains, USA. Wat. Resour. Res. 32, 3175–3185 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Scott-Denton, L. E., Sparks, K. L. & Monson, R. K. Spatial and temporal controls over soil respiration rate in a high-elevation, subalpine forest. Soil Biol. Biochem. 35, 525–534 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Lipson, D. A., Schmidt, S. K. & Monson, R. K. Links between microbial population dynamics and N availability in an alpine ecosystem. Ecology 80, 1623–1631 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Schmidt, S. K. A substrate-induced growth-response (SIGR) method for estimating the biomass of microbial functional groups in soil and aquatic systems. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 101, 197–206 (1992)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Lipson, D. A. & Schmidt, S. K. Seasonal changes in an alpine soil bacterial community in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70, 2867–2879 (2004)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Martin, A. P. Phylogenetic approaches for describing and comparing the diversity of microbial communities. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68, 3673–3682 (2002)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support provided by the US Department of Energy Terrestrial Carbon Program and National Institute for Global Environmental Change (NIGEC), the US National Science Foundation programmes on ‘Long-Term Ecological Research’, ‘Ecology and Evolutionary Physiology’, and ‘Microbial Observatories’, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research for support provided to the ‘Carbon in the Mountains Experiment’ (CME).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Russell K. Monson and David L. Lipson: *These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,

    Russell K. Monson, Sean P. Burns & Steven K. Schmidt

  2. Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Environmental Science,

    Russell K. Monson

  3. Department of Geography and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Colorado, 80309, Boulder, USA

    Mark W. Williams

  4. Department of Biology, San Diego State University, California, 92182, San Diego, USA

    David L. Lipson

  5. National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Colorado, 80305, Boulder, USA

    Sean P. Burns, Andrew A. Turnipseed & Anthony C. Delany

Authors
  1. Russell K. Monson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David L. Lipson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sean P. Burns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrew A. Turnipseed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Anthony C. Delany
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mark W. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Steven K. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Russell K. Monson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Monson, R., Lipson, D., Burns, S. et al. Winter forest soil respiration controlled by climate and microbial community composition. Nature 439, 711–714 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04555

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04555

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing