Citation: | Xue-yang Yu, Si-yuan Ye, Li-xin Pei, Liu-juan Xie, Ken W. Krauss, Samantha K. Chapman, Hans Brix, 2023. Biophysical warming patterns of an open-top chamber and its short-term influence on a Phragmites wetland ecosystem in China, China Geology, 6, 594-610. doi: 10.31035/cg2022064 |
Passive-warming, open-top chambers (OTCs) are widely applied for studying the effects of future climate warming on coastal wetlands. In this study, a set of six OTCs were established at a Phragmites wetland located in the Yellow River Delta of Dongying City, China. With data collected through online transmission and in-situ sensors, the attributes and patterns of realized OTCs warming are demonstrated. The authors also quantified the preliminary influence of experimental chamber warming on plant traits. OTCs produced an elevated average air temperature of 0.8°C (relative to controls) during the growing season (June to October) of 2018, and soil temperatures actually decreased by 0.54°C at a depth of 5 cm and 0.46°C at a depth of 30 cm in the OTCs. Variations in diel patterns of warming depend greatly on the heat sources of incoming radiation in the daytime versus soil heat flux at night. Warming effects were often larger during instantaneous analyses and influenced OTCs air temperatures from −2.5°C to 8.3°C dependent on various meteorological conditions at any given time, ranging from cooling influences from vertical heat exchange and vegetation to radiation-associated warming. Night-time temperature depressions in the OTCs were due to the low turbulence inside OTCs and changes in surface soil-atmosphere heat transfer. Plant shoot density, basal diameter, and biomass of Phragmites decreased by 23.2%, 6.3%, and 34.0%, respectively, under experimental warming versus controls, and plant height increased by 4.3%, reflecting less carbon allocation to stem structures as plants in the OTCs experienced simultaneous wind buffering. While these passive-warming OTCs created the desired warming effects both to the atmosphere and soils, pest damages on the plant leaves and lodging within the OTCs were extensive and serious, creating the need to consider control options for these chambers and the replicated OTCs studies underway in other Chinese Phragmites marshes (Panjin and Yancheng).
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Location (a) of the warming experiment and open-top chamber (OTC) chamber setup (b, c).
Visualization of plant biomass (g fresh weight) estimation equation. The red dots indicate the measured 25 shoots of local Phragmites, and the integrated blue surface indicates the fitting equation for estimating plant fresh biomass.
Daily averaged environmental variables associated with OTCs and control plots in the Yellow River Delta. a‒red line represents the air temperature and the blue bars indicate precipitation; b‒orange line represents the daily averaged net radiation and the grey bars represent the wind speed; c‒water table relative to the soil surface during the observing period.
Diel variation of air temperature and soil temperature on typical sunny days. Temperatures in OTCs are colored red and the temperatures in the control plots are colored black. For the air temperature graphs, the upper level (190 cm) temperatures were drawn with solid lines while the lower level (100 cm) temperatures were drawn with dashed lines. Soil temperatures of depth 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm are marked with circles, squares, triangles, and crosses, respectively. Three typical days of full sunlight were selected including 18 June, 3 August, and 27 September, indicating late spring, summer, and autumn patterns.
OTCs warming amount of air temperatures over four diel periods. Periods were determined as night (21:00 to 3:00), morning (3:00 to 9:00), noon (9:00 to 15:00) and dawn (15:00 to 21:00). The red bars represent the warming amount range for a single day during a corresponding period. The blue lines represent the average warming amount of the corresponding period.
Diel variation of air temperature and soil temperature on typical cloudy/rainy days. Temperatures in OTCs are colored red and the temperatures in the control plot are colored black. For the air temperature graphs, the upper level (190 cm) temperatures were drawn with solid lines while the lower level (100 cm) temperatures were drawn with dashed lines. Soil temperatures of depth 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm are marked with circles, squares, triangles, and crosses, respectively. Three typical days of cloudy/rainy were chosen as 22 June, 19 August, and 9 October, indicating late spring, summer, and autumn patterns.
OTCs warming amount of 5 cm depth soil temperatures over four diel periods. Periods were determined as night (21:00 to 3:00), morning (3:00 to 9:00), noon (9:00 to 15:00) and dawn (15:00 to 21:00). The red bars represent the warming amount range for a single day during a corresponding period. The blue lines represent the average warming amount of the corresponding period.
Influence of OTCs warming on soil water content and soil conductivity at different soil depths. The blue bars indicate the traits of the control plots and the red bars indicate the traits of OTCs warming conditions. Bars represent standard deviations of the mean within each group to highlight the variability (vs. standard error). The horizontal red lines indicated no significant difference within each group.
Separated groups of the relationship between stem basal diameter and plant height. The red lines and symbols indicate plant traits inside the OTCs while the blue lines and symbols represent plant traits outside the OTCs (control). Lines represent least squares fitting, with a sigmoidal curve representing the best fit among those tested.
Influence of OTCs warming on Phragmites’ height and basal stem diameter. The color red represents OTCs warming conditions and the color blue represents non-warmed control plots. The stacked bars of the upper left pane indicate three selected quadrats. Bars represent standard errors of the mean.
Visual comparison of Phragmites inside and outside the OTCs. Common reeds grew normally and erect in control plots (a, c); whereas, lodging and aphid attacks occurred in the OTCs (b, d).
Relationship between air temperature daily warming amount and its influencing factors of net radiation and wind speed.
Normalized air temperature inside and outside the OTCs. Within each observing day, the daily air temperature was linearly normalized by regulating the daily lowest air temperature as −1, the daily highest air temperature as 1, and the daily average air temperature as 0. All observed air temperature data from 14 June to 4 November were used.
Environmental factors contributing to OTCs’ night-time cooling processes. In the upper panels, the black line represents the air temperature difference between the high position (190 cm) versus the low position (100 cm) inside OTCs. The red solid and dashed lines represent the warming amount of the high position and low position, respectively. The net radiation (NR) is represented by orange solid lines. In the lower panels, grey and black color indicate soil temperature responses at the soil depths of 5 cm and 30 cm, respectively, while the solid and dashed lines indicate the warming and control conditions, respectively. The relative humidity (RH) of inside OTCs air was marked as blue solid lines.
Schematic explanation of OTCs warming as surmised from these experiments. The color bar demonstrates the relative temperature, and the orange arrows indicate the heat flow. Wind and turbulence were marked as blue arrows.