Observations of 14CO2 in ecosystem respiration from a temperate deciduous forest in Northern Wisconsin
Abstract
We show that the 14CO2 composition of plant and soil respiration can be used to determine the residence time of photosynthetically fixed carbon before it is released back to the atmosphere. To estimate the residence time of actively cycled carbon in a temperate forest, we employed two approaches for estimating the Δ14CO2 of ecosystem respiration (Δ14C-Reco) at the Willow Creek AmeriFlux site in Northern Wisconsin, USA. Our first approach was to construct nighttime Keeling plots from subcanopy profiles of Δ14CO2 and CO2, providing estimates of Δ14C-Reco of 121.7‰ in June and 42.0‰ in August 2012. These measurements are likely dominated by soil fluxes due to proximity to the ground level. Our second approach utilized samples taken over 20 months within the forest canopy and from 396 m above ground level at the nearby LEF NOAA tall tower site (Park Falls, WI). In this canopy-minus-background approach we employed a mixing model described by Miller and Tans (2003) for estimating isotopic sources by subtracting time-varying background conditions. For the period from May 2011 to December 2012 the estimated Δ14C-Reco using the Miller-Tans model was 76.8‰. Together, these Δ14C-Reco values represent mean Reco carbon ages of approximately 1–19 years. We also found thatmore »
- Authors:
-
- Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). Department of Crops and Soil Science
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry; Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
- NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO (United States). Global Monitoring Division; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). CIRES
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). INSTAAR
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1409977
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1402188
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-741230
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-8953
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344; LDRD 11-ERD-053; 10-06
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 120; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-8953
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Radiocarbon; Keeling plot; AmeriFlux; respiration
Citation Formats
Phillips, Claire L., McFarlane, Karis J., LaFranchi, Brian, Desai, Ankur R., Miller, John B., and Lehman, Scott J. Observations of 14CO2 in ecosystem respiration from a temperate deciduous forest in Northern Wisconsin. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1002/2014JG002808.
Phillips, Claire L., McFarlane, Karis J., LaFranchi, Brian, Desai, Ankur R., Miller, John B., & Lehman, Scott J. Observations of 14CO2 in ecosystem respiration from a temperate deciduous forest in Northern Wisconsin. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JG002808
Phillips, Claire L., McFarlane, Karis J., LaFranchi, Brian, Desai, Ankur R., Miller, John B., and Lehman, Scott J. Tue .
"Observations of 14CO2 in ecosystem respiration from a temperate deciduous forest in Northern Wisconsin". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JG002808. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1409977.
@article{osti_1409977,
title = {Observations of 14CO2 in ecosystem respiration from a temperate deciduous forest in Northern Wisconsin},
author = {Phillips, Claire L. and McFarlane, Karis J. and LaFranchi, Brian and Desai, Ankur R. and Miller, John B. and Lehman, Scott J.},
abstractNote = {We show that the 14CO2 composition of plant and soil respiration can be used to determine the residence time of photosynthetically fixed carbon before it is released back to the atmosphere. To estimate the residence time of actively cycled carbon in a temperate forest, we employed two approaches for estimating the Δ14CO2 of ecosystem respiration (Δ14C-Reco) at the Willow Creek AmeriFlux site in Northern Wisconsin, USA. Our first approach was to construct nighttime Keeling plots from subcanopy profiles of Δ14CO2 and CO2, providing estimates of Δ14C-Reco of 121.7‰ in June and 42.0‰ in August 2012. These measurements are likely dominated by soil fluxes due to proximity to the ground level. Our second approach utilized samples taken over 20 months within the forest canopy and from 396 m above ground level at the nearby LEF NOAA tall tower site (Park Falls, WI). In this canopy-minus-background approach we employed a mixing model described by Miller and Tans (2003) for estimating isotopic sources by subtracting time-varying background conditions. For the period from May 2011 to December 2012 the estimated Δ14C-Reco using the Miller-Tans model was 76.8‰. Together, these Δ14C-Reco values represent mean Reco carbon ages of approximately 1–19 years. We also found that heterotrophic soil-respired Δ 14C at Willow Creek was 5–38‰ higher (i.e., 1–10 years older) than predicted by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach global biosphere carbon model for the 1 × 1 pixel nearest to the site. Finally, this study provides much needed observational constraints of ecosystem carbon residence times, which are a major source of uncertainty in terrestrial carbon cycle models.},
doi = {10.1002/2014JG002808},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences},
number = 4,
volume = 120,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Apr 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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