Abstract:
Zoige peatland, located in the northeast of Tibetan plateau, is the largest reservoir of soil organic carbon of alpine wetland in China and is sensitive to the climate change. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is the most active and sensitive component of carbon cycling in the peatland. Little is known about the impact of DOC on the climate change. This study focused on the seasonal dynamic characteristics of DOC and the main influenced factors in 2012in the peatland of the species, Carex muliensis, aiming to reveal the characteristics of carbon cycle in the peatland and its potential response to the climate change. Observations showed that there was a significant seasonal trend in DOC concentration of pore waters in the peatland (P<0.001, n=12). During the growing season, the DOC concentration fluctuated with seasonal changes with its maximum value (42.77mg/L) in August and the minimum value (26.27mg/L) in May, respectively. Meanwhile, there were significant seasonal changes for the components of DOC compound in the pore waters. From May to October, the relative amount of aromatic (i.e., A
254/ρ(DOC)) and coloured components (i.e., A
400/ρ(DOC)) of DOC compound increased steadily; while the humification degree (i.e., E4/E6) reduced quickly from May to July and then gradually elevated until October. Besides, correlated analysis indicated the temperature of the peat layer and surface and humidity were the major influencing factors of seasonal dynamic of DOC concentration (R
2=0.522; R
2=0.486; R
2=0.369), whereas precipitation was dominated in the seasonal variations of coloured components and humification degree (R=0.748; R=-0.604). Moreover, its humification degree was also influenced by temperature of peat layer and surface (R=0.744; R=0.722). The results provided an insight into seasonal dynamics of DOC compounds and its potential mechanism in the view of its composition and structure.