Global average temperature is rising, mostly due to the massive usage of fossil fuels. As temperature rises, it will have profound impacts on forest ecosystems. Forests are important carbon sinks that representing important climate feedbacks. In a field warming experiment in a temperate forest, scientists are evaluating the response of the existing biological communities to warming levels from ambient to +2°C, provided via large-scale infrared (IR) heater arrays.

This ecosystem-scale warming experiment is conducted in Qingyuan Forest CERN, Northeast China, leaded by Prof. Fang Yunting from the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The primary goal of the warming experiment is to examine how and through what mechanisms tree growth and soil carbon cycling respond to warming.

In the first four years (2018-2021), the IR heater arrays was capable of providing constant temperature elevation in the surface mineral soils over the large-scale plots (108 m2). Subsoils down to 60 cm were also warmed 1.2 to 2°C. As for soil moisture, the IR warming did not significantly it either in surface soils or in subsoils. Most importantly, the IR heater array overcomes complex field conditions, such as heavy rains and snow, which demonstrated its feasibility for soil warming in tall-statured forest ecosystems.

This ongoing, long-term warming experiment can help us to see how the temperate forest responds to warming level predicted in the next several decades. Moreover, this forest warming site offers opportunities for collaborations across broad research interests, including soil fauna and plant feedback on future climatic conditions.

The study entitled “Design and performance of an ecosystem-scale forest soil warming experiment with infrared heater arrays” is recently published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Contact 

YUE Qian

Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Tel: 86-24-83970324 

E-mail: yueqian@iae.ac.cn  

Web: http://english.iae.cas.cn