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Title: Fluxes all of the time? A primer on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET: FLUXES ALL OF THE TIME?

Abstract

©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. FLUXNET, the global network of eddy covariance flux towers, provides the largest synthesized data set of CO 2 , H 2 O, and energy fluxes. To achieve the ultimate goal of providing flux information “everywhere and all of the time,” studies have attempted to address the representativeness issue, i.e., whether measurements taken in a set of given locations and measurement periods can be extrapolated to a space- and time-explicit extent (e.g., terrestrial globe, 1982–2013 climatological baseline). This study focuses on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET and tests whether site-specific measurement periods are sufficient to capture the natural variability of climatological and biological conditions. FLUXNET is unevenly representative across sites in terms of the measurement lengths and potentials of extrapolation in time. Similarity of driver conditions among years generally enables the extrapolation of flux information beyond measurement periods. Yet such extrapolation potentials are further constrained by site-specific variability of driver conditions. Several driver variables such as air temperature, diurnal temperature range, potential evapotranspiration, and normalized difference vegetation index had detectable trends and/or breakpoints within the baseline period, and flux measurements generally covered similar and biased conditions in those drivers. About 38% and 60% ofmore » FLUXNET sites adequately sampled the mean conditions and interannual variability of all driver conditions, respectively. For long-record sites (≥15 years) the percentages increased to 59% and 69%, respectively. However, the justification of temporal representativeness should not rely solely on the lengths of measurements. Whenever possible, site-specific consideration (e.g., trend, breakpoint, and interannual variability in drivers) should be taken into account.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  3. ETH Zurich, (Switzerland)
  4. Max Planck Society, Jena (Germany). Max Planck Inst. for Biogeochemistry
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1532992
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1567076
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012456; AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 122; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-8953
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Geology

Citation Formats

Chu, Housen, Baldocchi, Dennis D., John, Ranjeet, Wolf, Sebastian, and Reichstein, Markus. Fluxes all of the time? A primer on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET: FLUXES ALL OF THE TIME?. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1002/2016jg003576.
Chu, Housen, Baldocchi, Dennis D., John, Ranjeet, Wolf, Sebastian, & Reichstein, Markus. Fluxes all of the time? A primer on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET: FLUXES ALL OF THE TIME?. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016jg003576
Chu, Housen, Baldocchi, Dennis D., John, Ranjeet, Wolf, Sebastian, and Reichstein, Markus. Tue . "Fluxes all of the time? A primer on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET: FLUXES ALL OF THE TIME?". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016jg003576. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1532992.
@article{osti_1532992,
title = {Fluxes all of the time? A primer on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET: FLUXES ALL OF THE TIME?},
author = {Chu, Housen and Baldocchi, Dennis D. and John, Ranjeet and Wolf, Sebastian and Reichstein, Markus},
abstractNote = {©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. FLUXNET, the global network of eddy covariance flux towers, provides the largest synthesized data set of CO 2 , H 2 O, and energy fluxes. To achieve the ultimate goal of providing flux information “everywhere and all of the time,” studies have attempted to address the representativeness issue, i.e., whether measurements taken in a set of given locations and measurement periods can be extrapolated to a space- and time-explicit extent (e.g., terrestrial globe, 1982–2013 climatological baseline). This study focuses on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET and tests whether site-specific measurement periods are sufficient to capture the natural variability of climatological and biological conditions. FLUXNET is unevenly representative across sites in terms of the measurement lengths and potentials of extrapolation in time. Similarity of driver conditions among years generally enables the extrapolation of flux information beyond measurement periods. Yet such extrapolation potentials are further constrained by site-specific variability of driver conditions. Several driver variables such as air temperature, diurnal temperature range, potential evapotranspiration, and normalized difference vegetation index had detectable trends and/or breakpoints within the baseline period, and flux measurements generally covered similar and biased conditions in those drivers. About 38% and 60% of FLUXNET sites adequately sampled the mean conditions and interannual variability of all driver conditions, respectively. For long-record sites (≥15 years) the percentages increased to 59% and 69%, respectively. However, the justification of temporal representativeness should not rely solely on the lengths of measurements. Whenever possible, site-specific consideration (e.g., trend, breakpoint, and interannual variability in drivers) should be taken into account.},
doi = {10.1002/2016jg003576},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences},
number = 2,
volume = 122,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jan 24 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Tue Jan 24 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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