Controls of Seasonal and Interannual Variations on Soil Respiration in a Meadow Steppe in Eastern Inner Mongolia

Understanding long-term seasonal and interannual patterns of soil respiration with their controls is essential for accurately quantifying carbon fluxes at a regional scale. During the period from 2009 to 2014, an automatic measurement system (LI-8150, Licor Ldt., Lincoln, Nebraska, USA) was employed for the measurement of soil respiration in a meadow steppe of eastern Inner Mongolia. We found that the seasonal pattern of soil respiration was controlled mainly by the soil temperature, which explained about 82.19% of the variance. Annual soil respiration varied between 391.4 g cm−2 and 597.7 g cm−2, and significantly correlated with soil moisture, suggesting that soil moisture was the most predominant factor controlling the annual variations of soil respiration in this meadow steppe. A double factorial exponential model including both soil temperature (TS) and soil water content (SWC) (y = 6.084×exp(0.098 TS×SWC) − 5.636) explains 72.2% of the overall variance in soil respiration. We also detected a temporal inconsistency of 2–3 months in the effects of precipitation on soil respiration versus canopy biomass production, which was presumably a main mechanism explaining the weak relationships between soil respiration and phytomass components in this ecosystem. Our findings have important implications for better understanding and accurately assessing the carbon cycling characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems in response to climate change in a temporal perspective.