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Title: Strong regional atmospheric 14C signature of respired CO2 observed from a tall tower over the midwestern United States

Abstract

Here, radiocarbon in CO2 (14CO2) measurements can aid in discriminating between fast (<1 year) and slower (>5–10 years) cycling of C between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere due to the 14C disequilibrium between atmospheric and terrestrial C. However, 14CO2 in the atmosphere is typically much more strongly impacted by fossil fuel emissions of CO2, and, thus, observations often provide little additional constraints on respiratory flux estimates at regional scales. Here we describe a data set of 14CO2 observations from a tall tower in northern Wisconsin (USA) where fossil fuel influence is far enough removed that during the summer months, the biospheric component of the 14CO2 budget dominates. We find that the terrestrial biosphere is responsible for a significant contribution to 14CO2 that is 2–3 times higher than predicted by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach terrestrial ecosystem model for observations made in 2010. This likely includes a substantial contribution from the North American boreal ecoregion, but transported biospheric emissions from outside the model domain cannot be ruled out. The 14CO2 enhancement also appears somewhat decreased in observations made over subsequent years, suggesting that 2010 may be anomalous. With these caveats acknowledged, we discuss the implications of the observation/model comparison in terms ofmore » possible systematic biases in the model versus short-term anomalies in the observations. Going forward, this isotopic signal could be exploited as an important indicator to better constrain both the long-term carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems and the short-term impact of disturbance-based loss of carbon to the atmosphere.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. NOAA Earth Systems Research Lab., Boulder, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  4. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  5. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  6. NOAA Earth Systems Research Lab., Boulder, CO (United States)
  7. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Univ. of Groningen, Groningen (Netherlands)
  8. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Ramboll Environ U.S. Corp., Novato, CA (United States)
  9. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Isotope Centre, Lower Hutt (New Zealand)
  10. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
Sandia Internal; USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1338304
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1343024; OSTI ID: 1402240
Report Number(s):
SAND-2015-9875J; LLNL-JRNL-678969
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-8953; 607986
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000; AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-8953
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

LaFranchi, B. W., McFarlane, K. J., Miller, J. B., Lehman, S. J., Phillips, C. L., Andrews, A. E., Tans, P. P., Chen, H., Liu, Z., Turnbull, J. C., Xu, X., and Guilderson, T. P. Strong regional atmospheric 14C signature of respired CO2 observed from a tall tower over the midwestern United States. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1002/2015JG003271.
LaFranchi, B. W., McFarlane, K. J., Miller, J. B., Lehman, S. J., Phillips, C. L., Andrews, A. E., Tans, P. P., Chen, H., Liu, Z., Turnbull, J. C., Xu, X., & Guilderson, T. P. Strong regional atmospheric 14C signature of respired CO2 observed from a tall tower over the midwestern United States. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JG003271
LaFranchi, B. W., McFarlane, K. J., Miller, J. B., Lehman, S. J., Phillips, C. L., Andrews, A. E., Tans, P. P., Chen, H., Liu, Z., Turnbull, J. C., Xu, X., and Guilderson, T. P. Wed . "Strong regional atmospheric 14C signature of respired CO2 observed from a tall tower over the midwestern United States". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JG003271. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338304.
@article{osti_1338304,
title = {Strong regional atmospheric 14C signature of respired CO2 observed from a tall tower over the midwestern United States},
author = {LaFranchi, B. W. and McFarlane, K. J. and Miller, J. B. and Lehman, S. J. and Phillips, C. L. and Andrews, A. E. and Tans, P. P. and Chen, H. and Liu, Z. and Turnbull, J. C. and Xu, X. and Guilderson, T. P.},
abstractNote = {Here, radiocarbon in CO2 (14CO2) measurements can aid in discriminating between fast (<1 year) and slower (>5–10 years) cycling of C between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere due to the 14C disequilibrium between atmospheric and terrestrial C. However, 14CO2 in the atmosphere is typically much more strongly impacted by fossil fuel emissions of CO2, and, thus, observations often provide little additional constraints on respiratory flux estimates at regional scales. Here we describe a data set of 14CO2 observations from a tall tower in northern Wisconsin (USA) where fossil fuel influence is far enough removed that during the summer months, the biospheric component of the 14CO2 budget dominates. We find that the terrestrial biosphere is responsible for a significant contribution to 14CO2 that is 2–3 times higher than predicted by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach terrestrial ecosystem model for observations made in 2010. This likely includes a substantial contribution from the North American boreal ecoregion, but transported biospheric emissions from outside the model domain cannot be ruled out. The 14CO2 enhancement also appears somewhat decreased in observations made over subsequent years, suggesting that 2010 may be anomalous. With these caveats acknowledged, we discuss the implications of the observation/model comparison in terms of possible systematic biases in the model versus short-term anomalies in the observations. Going forward, this isotopic signal could be exploited as an important indicator to better constrain both the long-term carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems and the short-term impact of disturbance-based loss of carbon to the atmosphere.},
doi = {10.1002/2015JG003271},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences},
number = 8,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Aug 31 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Wed Aug 31 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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