About 10% 0f 2700 GT of C in the soil is respired to the atmosphere. It may increase with higher temperatures to a certain extent because of microbial action. Small scale changes in the soil respiration rate might have feedback on the carbon sequestration potential of the soil and indirectly on the biomass. It is also highlighted that abiotic factors are the drivers of the seasonality trend of soil respiration. In this study, an automatic chamber of Q- box was used to measure the spatial and temporal variation of soil respiration in different sacred groves of Manipur which lie at low latitude. They have been preserving for a long time back, conserving forests, woodland, or other environmental and social structure. Considering the ecological role of the sacred grove, they can be considered as a mesocosm to study the soil carbon emission. In the present investigation, There was an increase in the CO2 efflux rate of the soil from moist summer to rainy season (April to August) to a maximum of 728.70 ± 19.06 to 950.97 ± 41.15 μmol m−2 min−1 and varied significantly ( F(5, 1722) = 2.92 at P > 0.05). However, maximum percentage of variability was contributed by soil temperature (r= 0.92 at P>0.01) surpassing soil moisture and other abiotic factors responsible for the seasonality trend of soil respiration rate. Interestingly, it was observed that the litter biomass had negative correlation (-0.84) at P>0.005) with the soil C emission. Therefore, forest floors will remain intact and carbon from the decomposition of the biomass and litter might be sequestered in the soil layers. Further studies on temperature sensibility and rate-limiting factors of soil respiration in subtropical forest ecosystems are encouraged to enhance our understanding of the source-sink mechanism.
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