Spatial biases of information influence global estimates of soil respiration: how can we improve global predictions?

Stell, Emma; Warner, Daniel; Jian, Jinshi; Bond-Lamberty, Benjamin; Vargas, Rodrigo

doi:10.1111/gcb.15666

Spatial biases of information influence global estimates of soil respiration: how can we improve global predictions?

Journal Article · Mon Aug 02 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Global Change Biology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15666· OSTI ID:1811290

Stell, Emma ^[1]; Warner, Daniel ^[1]; Jian, Jinshi ^[2]; ^[2]; Vargas, Rodrigo ^[1]

University of Delaware
BATTELLE (PACIFIC NW LAB)

Soil respiration (Rs), the efflux of CO2 from soils to the atmosphere, is a major component of the terrestrial carbon cycle, but is poorly constrained from regional to global scales. The global soil respiration database (SRDB) is a compilation of in-situ Rs observations from around the globe that has been consistently updated with new measurements over the past decade. It is unclear whether the addition of data to new versions of the SRDB has produced better-constrained global Rs estimates. We compared two versions of the SRDB (v3.0 n=5173 and v5.0 n=10366) to determine how additional data influenced the global sum and uncertainty of Rs as predicted by a quantile regression forest model. A model parameterized using SRDBv3 yielded a global Rs sum of 88.6 Pg C yr-1, and associated uncertainty of 29.9 (mean absolute error) and 57.9 (standard deviation) Pg C yr-1, whereas parameterization using SRDBv5 yielded 96.5 Pg C yr-1 and associated uncertainty of 30.2 (mean average error) and 73.4 (standard deviation) Pg C yr-1. Empirically estimated global heterotrophic respiration (Rh) from v3 and v5 were 49.9-50.2 (mean 50.1) and 53.3-53.5 (mean 53.4) Pg C yr-1, respectively. Interestingly, SRDBv5’s inclusion of new data from underrepresented regions (e.g., Asia, Africa, South America) thus resulted in overall higher model uncertainty. The SRDBv5 is still biased towards northern latitudes and temperate zones, so we tested that an optimized global distribution of Rs measurements resulted in a global sum of 96.4 ± 21.4 Pg C yr-1 and lower model uncertainty. These results support current global estimates of Rs but highlight spatial inconsistencies that influence model parameterization and interpretation that should be addressed to improve regional- to global-scale predictions.

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

DOE Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1811290

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-158170

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 27

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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