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sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Climate warming will not change greenhouse gas emission of biocrust in arid sandy areas

Climate change marked by global warming is affecting various ecological processes of terrestrial ecosystem.

Phys.org/news (APRIL 29, 2022)

Présentation
Based on a field warming experiment with open-top-chambers (OTCs) at the Shapotou Desert Research and Experimental Station, the researchers continuously monitored the GHG flux of mosses, algae and their mixture at the annual scale.

They measured CO2, CH4 and N2O effluxes in cyanobacteria-, moss-, and mixed (moss, cyanobacteria and lichen) biocrust soils from 2012 to 2014, covering three growing seasons and two non-growing seasons. The results showed that desert biocrust soils generally acted as a weak sink of atmospheric CH4 and N2O.

Although the effects of global warming on GHG fluxes varied with sampling time and biocrust type, there was no significant difference in daily, monthly and seasonal average CO2, CH4 and N2O effluxes between warming and control in most cases for three biocrust soils.

Besides, the annual cumulative CO2 emissions from moss biocrust warming decreased by 14.2% due to warming, but warming had no significant effect on the other two types of biocrust.

If the drought negative effect caused by warming indirectly and OTC sheltering of precipitation directly was excluded, warming would not significantly change the GHG emissions of biocrust soil ecosystem in arid desert areas.

Source  : Li Yuan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Annonce (Phys.org/news)