Response of soil microbial respiration to environmental factors of temperature and moisture in five forest types of Zagros (case study: Armardeh Baneh forests)

Soil microbial respiration in forests constitutes a significant share of carbon dioxide emissions in terrestrial ecosystems and is very sensitive to environmental changes such as soil temperature and moisture and the type of vegetation. In this study, soil microbial respiration and two environmental factors including temperature and soil moisture were conducted in five forest types in four seasons. Soil microbial respiration was measured by the closed bottle method, soil moisture in the laboratory and soil temperature with a thermometer simultaneously with soil sampling in areas of surface soil (0 to 10 cm depth), and the relationships between soil microbial respiration and environmental variables were analyzed. The results showed that the soil microbial respiration rate is significantly higher in the wet period (spring). The pure Quercus libani types with an average of 0.090 throughout the year had the highest amount and the pure Q. infectoria types with an amount of 0.078 mg/g of soil per day had the lowest amount of microbial respiration. Also, no significant difference was observed in soil microbial respiration between forest types.