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Comparing ecosystem and soil respiration: Review and key challenges of tower-based and soil measurements

Journal Article · · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) is the difference between ecosystem CO2 assimilation and CO2 losses to the atmosphere. Ecosystem respiration (Reco), the efflux of CO2 from the ecosystem to the atmosphere, includes the soil-to-atmosphere carbon flux (i.e., soil respiration; Rsoil) and aboveground plant respiration. Therefore, Rsoil is a fraction of Reco and by definition has to be smaller than Reco at annual, seasonal and daily scales. However, several studies estimating Reco with the eddy covariance technique and measuring Rsoil within the footprint of the tower have reported higher Rsoil than Reco at different time scales. Here, we compare four different and contrasting ecosystems (from forest to grasslands, and from boreal to semiarid) to study whether, and under what conditions, measurements of Reco are lower than Rsoil. In general, both fluxes showed similar temporal patterns, but Reco was not consistently higher than Rsoil from daily to annual scales across sites. We identified several issues that apply for measuring NEE and measuring/upscaling Rsoil that could result in an underestimation of Reco and/or an overestimation of Rsoil. These issues are discussed based on (a) nighttime measurements of NEE, (b) Rsoil measurements, and (c) the interpretation of the functional relationships of these fluxes with temperature (i.e., Q10). We highlight that there is still a need for better integration of Rsoil with eddy covariance measurements to address challenges related to spatial and temporal variability of Reco and Rsoil.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1416670
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-124283; KP1702010
Journal Information:
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Journal Name: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Journal Issue: C Vol. 249; ISSN 0168-1923
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Localized basal area affects soil respiration temperature sensitivity in a coastal deciduous forest journal February 2020
Automated measurements of greenhouse gases fluxes from tree stems and soils: magnitudes, patterns and drivers journal March 2019
From microhabitat to ecosystem: identifying the biophysical factors controlling soil CO 2 dynamics in a karst shrubland: Biophysical factors controlling soil CO 2 dynamics journal August 2018
Environmental and Vegetative Controls on Soil CO2 Efflux in Three Semiarid Ecosystems journal January 2019
SCFSen: A Sensor Node for Regional Soil Carbon Flux Monitoring journal November 2018
California air resources board forest carbon protocol invalidates offsets journal January 2019
Reconciling Negative Soil CO2 Fluxes: Insights from a Large-Scale Experimental Hillslope journal January 2019
Soil respiration of four forests along elevation gradient in northern subtropical China journal November 2019
Climate drivers of the terrestrial carbon cycle variability in Europe journal May 2019
Soil Respiration Variability and Correlation Across a Wide Range of Temporal Scales journal November 2019
Global satellite-driven estimates of heterotrophic respiration journal January 2019

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