Soil respiration in Chinese tea gardens: autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration

To obtain an improved understanding of the response of soil respiration (R-S) to soil temperature and water content, we used a trenching treatment that could divide R-S into autotrophic (R-A) and heterotrophic respiration (R-H) components in Chinese tea gardens in 2013. The results of the linear and non-linear relations of R-H and R-A with soil temperature and water content showed that temperature rather than water content was the main factor controlling the seasonality of R-H and R-A in Chinese tea gardens. The rates of R-H and R-A were fitted well in 14 models that took soil temperature or water content into account. Exponential models of soil temperature-moisture could explain the seasonal variation in R-H and R-A better than the single-factor models. Temperature sensitivity (Q(10)) values between R-H and R-A were not significantly different. The relative contribution (RC) of R-A to R-S in the tea gardens was 50-63%. This study will facilitate the development of models to investigate components of respiration in soil in general, and also improve our understanding of the response of these components to soil temperature and moisture.