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Title: Predicting carbon dioxide and energy fluxes across global FLUXNET sites with regression algorithms

Journal Article · · Biogeosciences (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [2];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy)
  2. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany)
  3. Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
  4. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama (Japan); National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba (Japan)
  5. Univ. de Valencia, Paterna (Spain)
  6. Univ. of Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy); Sapientia Hungarian Univ. of Transylvania, Miercurea Ciuc (Romania)
  7. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada)
  8. European Commission, Ispra (Italy)
  9. Univ. College, Cork (Ireland)
  10. ETH Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland); International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi (Kenya)
  11. Univ. of Granada, Granada (Spain)
  12. Friedrich Schiller Univ. Jena, Jena (Germany)
  13. ETH Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)

Spatio-temporal fields of land–atmosphere fluxes derived from data-driven models can complement simulations by process-based land surface models. While a number of strategies for empirical models with eddy-covariance flux data have been applied, a systematic intercomparison of these methods has been missing so far. In this study, we performed a cross-validation experiment for predicting carbon dioxide, latent heat, sensible heat and net radiation fluxes across different ecosystem types with 11 machine learning (ML) methods from four different classes (kernel methods, neural networks, tree methods, and regression splines). We applied two complementary setups: (1) 8-day average fluxes based on remotely sensed data and (2) daily mean fluxes based on meteorological data and a mean seasonal cycle of remotely sensed variables. The patterns of predictions from different ML and experimental setups were highly consistent. There were systematic differences in performance among the fluxes, with the following ascending order: net ecosystem exchange (R2 < 0.5), ecosystem respiration (R2 > 0.6), gross primary production (R2> 0.7), latent heat (R2 > 0.7), sensible heat (R2 > 0.7), and net radiation (R2 > 0.8). The ML methods predicted the across-site variability and the mean seasonal cycle of the observed fluxes very well (R2 > 0.7), while the 8-day deviations from the mean seasonal cycle were not well predicted (R2 < 0.5). Fluxes were better predicted at forested and temperate climate sites than at sites in extreme climates or less represented by training data (e.g., the tropics). Finally, the evaluated large ensemble of ML-based models will be the basis of new global flux products.

Research Organization:
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-04ER63917; FG02-04ER63911
OSTI ID:
1361528
Journal Information:
Biogeosciences (Online), Vol. 13, Issue 14; ISSN 1726-4189
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 398 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Inverse Determination of the Influence of Fire on Vegetation Carbon Turnover in the Pantropics journal December 2018
Large‐Scale Droughts Responsible for Dramatic Reductions of Terrestrial Net Carbon Uptake Over North America in 2011 and 2012 journal July 2018
Spatial Predictions and Associated Uncertainty of Annual Soil Respiration at the Global Scale journal December 2019
Improving Estimates of Gross Primary Productivity by Assimilating Solar‐Induced Fluorescence Satellite Retrievals in a Terrestrial Biosphere Model Using a Process‐Based SIF Model journal November 2019
Assimilation of Remotely Sensed LAI Into CLM4CN Using DART journal August 2019
Compensatory water effects link yearly global land CO2 sink changes to temperature journal January 2017
Land use change and El Niño-Southern Oscillation drive decadal carbon balance shifts in Southeast Asia journal March 2018
Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across the northern permafrost region journal October 2019
Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate to observed changes in terrestrial water storage journal August 2018
Deep learning and process understanding for data-driven Earth system science journal February 2019
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Terrestrial gross primary production: Using NIR V to scale from site to globe journal July 2019
Gap‐filling approaches for eddy covariance methane fluxes: A comparison of three machine learning algorithms and a traditional method with principal component analysis journal October 2019
Interannual variation of terrestrial carbon cycle: Issues and perspectives journal November 2019
Memory effects of climate and vegetation affecting net ecosystem CO2 fluxes in global forests journal February 2019
Estimation of Terrestrial Global Gross Primary Production (GPP) with Satellite Data-Driven Models and Eddy Covariance Flux Data journal August 2018
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Carbon–water flux coupling under progressive drought journal January 2019
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