Plant functional type effects on trace gas fluxes in the shortgrass steppe

Plant community structure is expected to regulate the microbial processes of nitrification and denitrification by controlling the availability of inorganic N substrates. Thus it could also be a factor in the concomitant release of NO and N2O from soils as a resultof these processes. C-3 and C-4 plants differ in several attributes related to the cycling of nitrogen and were hypothesized to yield differences in trace gas exchange between soil and atmosphere. In this study we estimated fluxes of NO, N2O and CH4 from soils of shortgrass steppe communities dominated by either C-3 plants, C-4 plants or mixtures of the two types. We collected gas samplesweekly from two sites, a sandy clay loam and a clay, throughout the growing seasons of 1995 and 1996. Plant functional type effects on gas fluxes at the clay site were not apparent, however we found severaldifferences among plant communities on the sandy clay loam. CH4 uptake from atmosphere to soil was significantly greater on C-4 plots than C-3 plots in both years. NO fluxes were significantly greater from C-4 plots than from C-3 plots in 1995. NO fluxes from C-3 and mixed plots were not significantly different between 1995 and 1996, however fluxes from C-4 plots were significantly greater in 1995 compared to 1996. Results indicate that under certain environmental conditions, particularly when factors such as moisture and temperature an not limiting, plant community composition can play an important role in regulating trace gas exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]