Small scale spatial variability and pattern of soil respiration and water content in wet and a dry temperate grasslands and bare soil
2009
Fóti, S., Szent Istvan University, Gödöllő (Hungary) | Nagy, Z., Szent Istvan University, Gödöllő (Hungary) | Balogh, J., Szent Istvan University, Gödöllő (Hungary) | Bartha, S. | Acosta, M. | Czóbel, S., Szent Istvan University, Gödöllő (Hungary) | Péli, E. R. | Marek, M. V. | Tuba, Z.
Spatial variability and pattern of soil respiration and soil water content were examined in uniform patches of two different temperate grasslands and on bare soil. Soil respiration was measured by using hemisphere gas exchange chamber of 20 cm diameter along 15 m long transects at 20 cm spacing. The most simple, but commonly used expression of variability is the coefficient of variation (CV) of the measured variable. The lowest CV of 75 samples of soil respiration was found on the humid mountain meadow (28%), followed by the bare soil (38%) and the dry sandy grassland (45%). More elaborated approach to study the spatial variability of some property is geostatistical analysis, revealing the size of characteristic patches of soil respiration and soil water content. Ranges of spatial autocorrelation for soil respiration were 0.39 m for bare soil, 0.47 m for humid meadow and 0.73 m for sandy grassland, while values of spatial autocorrelation for soil water content were 0.48 m, 0.90 m and 1.08 m, respectively. Our work proved that in dry grassland, where water shortage (drought) is a common feature in the vegetation period, the ranges of spatial autocorrelation and hence the characteristic patch sizes of soil CO2 efflux and soil water content were larger than in the humid grassland.
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