Response of soil respiration to addition of different forms of nitrogen and mowing in a saline-alkali grassland in the northern agro-pastoral ecotone

Aims The agro-pastoral ecotone is considered as fragile ecosystems which are strongly affected by agriculture and animal husbandry. The on carbon dynamic in this saline-alkali grassland located in the agro-pastoral ecotone, we determined the response of soil respiration to N addition and mowing. The field experiment was set up in May, 2017. The treatments included: control (without mowing and mowing), addition of urea, addition of slow release urea, addition of urea + mowing, addition of slow release urea + mowing. Each treatment included 6 replicates. Therefore, there were totally 36 plots in this experiment. Soil respiration rate, soil temperature, soil moisture content, microbial biomass, inorganic N content, above-ground and below-ground biomass were measured under different treatments, and the cumulative carbon emissions and CO 2 fluxes were calculated.