| Summary: | The characteristics of soil respiration (Rs) across different stand ages have not been well investigated. In this study, we identified temporal variation of Rs and its driving factors under three nature forest stands (e.g. 15-yr-old, 30-yr-old, and 45-yr-old) of Pinus yunnanensis in the Plateau of Mid-Yunnan, China. No consistent tendency was found on the change of Rs with the stand ages. Rs was ranked in the order of 30-yr-old > 45-yr-old >15-yr-old. Rs in 15-yr-old stand was the most sensitive to soil temperature (Ts) among the three sites. However, Ts only explained 30-40% of the seasonal dynamics of Rs at the site. Soil water content (Sw) was the major controlling factor of temporal variation at the three sites. Sw explained 88-93% of seasonal variations of Rs in the 30-yr-old stand, and 63.7-72.7% in the 15-yr-old and 79.1-79.6% in the 45-yr-old stands. In addition, we found that pH, available nitrogen (AN), C/N and total phosphorus (TP) contributed significantly to the seasonal variation of Rs. Sw was significantly related with pH, total nitrogen (TN), AN and TP, suggesting that Sw can affect Rs through improving soil acid-base property and soil texture, and increasing availability of soil nutrient. The results indicated that besides soil water, soil properties (e. g. pH, AN, C/N and TP) were also the important in controlling the temporal variations of Rs across different stand ages in the nature forestry.
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