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Temperature responses of ecosystem respiration

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, pages 559–571 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Terrestrial ecosystems release ~106–130 PgC yr–1 into the atmosphere through respiration, counterbalancing photosynthetic carbon uptake and determining the strength of the land carbon sink. The effect of anthropogenic warming on the land carbon sink will depend on the temperature response of respiration. In this Review, we explore the relationships between temperature and ecosystem respiration from experimental and observational data at leaf, microbial, ecosystem and global scales. Contrary to the assumed monotonic increase in respiration with increasing temperature derived from Earth system models, empirical findings indicate a unimodal temperature response with a peak in respiration at an optimal temperature (Topt). This unimodality is observed across a range of organization levels with Topt values of 40–60 °C at the leaf and plant level, 11–46 °C at a microbial level and 6.5–33.3 °C at the global scale. Various mechanisms contribute to this unimodal pattern including enzyme deactivation, the thermodynamics of enzyme-catalysed reactions and changes in temperature-dependent factors such as soil moisture, nutrient availability and vegetation physiology. Incorporating the unimodality of these observed temperature responses of ecosystem respiration into Earth system models could facilitate attribution studies to identify the mechanisms responsible for the peaked response and increase the accuracy of carbon sequestration predictions.

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Fig. 1: Temperature responses of respiration.
Fig. 2: Short-term temperature response of leaf respiration.
Fig. 3: Variation of the optimal temperature of ecosystem respiration.
Fig. 4: Comparing the observed and modelled temperature responses of ecosystem respiration.

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Data availability

The data for Fig. 2 are available from M.H. The observational data used to make Fig. 4 were obtained from FLUXNET data sets (https://fluxnet.org/).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31988102), the National Key Technology R & D Program of China (2022YFF0802102) and the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Science (177GJHZ2022020BS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Shuli Niu, Weinan Chen, Song Wang, Jinsong Wang, Yuanyuan Huang & Guirui Yu

  2. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Shuli Niu, Weinan Chen, Song Wang, Jinsong Wang & Guirui Yu

  3. Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Lìyǐn L. Liáng & Miko U. F. Kirschbaum

  4. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany

    Carlos A. Sierra

  5. Research Center for Global Change and Complex Ecosystems, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Jianyang Xia

  6. Department of Biology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, USA

    Mary Heskel

  7. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA

    Kaizad F. Patel

  8. Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, MD, USA

    Ben Bond-Lamberty

  9. Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK

    Gabriel Yvon-Durocher

  10. Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Owen K. Atkin

  11. Soil and Crop Sciences Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Yiqi Luo

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  1. Shuli Niu
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Contributions

S.N. conceived the ideas and designed the study framework. S.N., W.C., L.L.L., C.A.S., J.X., M.H., K.F.P. and B.B.-L. led the writing of the manuscript. S.W. and J.W. assisted with data collation and figures. M.U.F.K., O.K.A., G.Y.-D., Y.H. and Y.L. helped to improve the writing of the paper and contributed to the revisions. All authors contributed to the drafts and revision.

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Correspondence to Shuli Niu.

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Glossary

Apparent temperature response

The overall observed or measured changes in respiration rate as a function of temperature, including the effects of external factors such as soil water content, substrate and nutrient supply, which also vary with temperature.

Autotrophic respiration

Respiration from plant growth and maintenance.

Ecosystem respiration

The release of CO2 into the atmosphere from the collective metabolic processes of living organisms within an ecosystem.

Heterotrophic respiration

Respiration from the decomposition of litter and soil organic matter by soil microorganisms.

Intrinsic temperature response

The isolated effect of temperature on respiration rate, assuming all covarying factors remain constant. It is obtained from field or laboratory experiments in which all environmental factors except temperature are held constant and non-limiting.

Optimal temperature

Topt. The temperature at which the rate of respiration is maximized.

Q 10 factor

The factor by which the respiration rate changes for a 10° change in temperature, used as a measure of the relative temperature sensitivity.

Q 10 function

A strictly monotonic increasing function used to describe the temperature response of respiration as f(T) = aebT, in which T is the temperature, a is a fitted constant and b = ln(Q10)/10.

Temperature sensitivity

The change of respiration per unit change in temperature in the apparent or intrinsic temperature response of respiration.

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Niu, S., Chen, W., Liáng, L.L. et al. Temperature responses of ecosystem respiration. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 559–571 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00569-3

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