Impacts of diurnal temperature range on ecosystem carbon balance: an experimental test in grassland mesocosms

Although extensive research has determined ecosystem responses to equal increases in day and night temperatures, current temperature increases have generally been asymmetrical, with increases in minimum temperature (Tmin) exceeding increases in maximum temperature (Tmax), or vice versa, depending on location. We conducted an ecosystem warming experiment in a perennial grassland to determine the effects of asymmetrically elevated diel temperature profiles using precision climate-controlled sunlit environmental chambers. Asymmetrically warmed chambers (+5/+2°C, Tmin/Tmax) were compared with symmetrically warmed (+3.5°C continuously) and control chambers (ambient). We tested three alternative hypotheses comparing the carbon balance under symmetric (SYM) and asymmetric (ASYM) warming: H1) SYM < ASYM, due either to a shorter growing season in the SYM treatment from lower Tmin, or to higher respiratory costs from higher Tmax; H2) SYM > ASYM, because warmer nights in the ASYM treatment increase respiration more then photosynthesis, reducing plant growth; H3) SYM = ASYM, due to a combination of effects. Results from the third growing season support H3, that carbon balance is the same under the two elevated diel temperature profiles. During the early part of the growing season, asymmetric warming resulted in higher nighttime respiratory losses than symmetric warming, but these greater loses were compensated by increased early morning photosynthesis. As a result, carbon balance was not different in the two warming treatments at daily time steps. Furthermore, declines in soil moisture over the growing season may have important modulating impacts on the temperature sensitivity of carbon fluxes. As soils dried, carbon fluxes became less sensitive to diel temperature fluctuations, and more similar in the symmetric and asymmetric treatments.