Autotrophic respiration is more sensitive to nitrogen addition and grazing than heterotrophic respiration in a meadow steppe

A quantitative understanding of temporal patterns of soil respiration (SR) and its components, as well as of their controlling factors, are key to the estimation of grassland C sequestration under different scenarios of land-use change and global change. However, the sensitivity of seasonal patterns and magnitude of SR and its components to N addition (N) and grazing (G) and their interactions remains poorly understood. We carried out an experiment with N, G and N addition plus grazing (NG) treatments in temperate meadow steppe located in the easternmost of the Eurasian steppe. We measured SR and its components, i.e., autotrophic respiration (AR) and heterotrophic respiration (HR), along with a suite of other biotic and abiotic factors over 3 years. N addition increased AR when compared to the control treatment (CK), whereas moderate grazing decreased AR, and N addition and grazing had additive effects on AR. We found that aboveground biomass was the predominant controlling factor of AR. However, the N, G and NG treatments had no significant effects on HR. Although N addition and grazing caused changes in a series of biotic and abiotic factors (e.g. total PLFAs, soil fungal/bacterial ratio and bulk density) that controlled soil microbial metabolic processes, collectively these effects on HR appeared to offset each other. Moreover, compared to the CK and N treatments, G and NG treatments reduced the apparent temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀) of AR and HR. Grazing dampened the positive response of Q₁₀ of HR to N addition. Our study suggests that AR and HR are regulated by different underlying mechanisms and respond differently to N and G, and therefore should be modeled separately to improve models and predictions of ecosystem C cycling. Our study also indicates that moderate grazing could produce beneficial effects on meadow steppe carbon sequestration under future scenarios of nitrogen deposition and climate warming.