Seasonal and inter-annual variations in CO2 fluxes over 10 years in an alpine shrubland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

•The alpine shrubland acts as weak CO2 sink with −74.4 ± 12.7 g C m−2 year−1 (Mean ± S.E.).•Thermal conditions (GDD and GSL) regulated variations of annual GPP.•Water status during vegetation onset played important role in variations of annual RES.•ANPP of nested-grass accounted for variations of annual shurbland NEE.

Alpine ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle, yet the long-term response of in situ ground-based observations of carbon fluxes to climate change remains not fully understood. Here, we analyzed the continuous net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) measured with the eddy covariance technique over an alpine Potentilla fruticosa shrubland on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau from 2003 to 2012. The shrubland acted as a net CO2 sink with a negative NEE (−74.4 ± 12.7 g C m−2 year−1, Mean ± S.E.). The mean annual gross primary productivity (GPP) and annual ecosystem respiration (RES) were 511.8 ± 11.3 and 437.4 ± 17.8 g C m−2 year−1, respectively. The classification and regression trees (CART) analysis showed that aggregated growing season degree days (GDD) was the predominant determinant on variations in monthly NEE and monthly GPP, including its effect on leaf area index (LAI, satellite-retrieved data). However, variations in monthly RES were determined much more strongly by LAI. Non-growing season soil temperature (Ts) and growing season length (GSL) accounted for 59% and 42% of variations in annual GPP and annual NEE, respectively. Growing season soil water content (SWC) exerted a positive linear influence on variations in annual RES (r2 = 0.40, p = 0.03). The thermal conditions and soil water status during the onset of the growing season are crucial for inter-annual variations of carbon fluxes. Our results suggested that an extended growing season and warmer non-growing season would enhance carbon assimilation capacity in the alpine shrubland.