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Title: Seasonal exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere: extrapolation from site-specific models to regional models

Book ·
OSTI ID:5885066

Ecological models of the seasonal exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere are needed in the study of changes in atmospheric CO/sub 2/ concentration. In response to this need, a set of site-specific models of seasonal terrestrial carbon dynamics was assembled from open-literature sources. The collection was chosen as a base for the development of biome-level models for each of the earth's principal terrestrial biomes or vegetation complexes. Two methods of extrapolation were tested. The first approach was a simple extrapolation that assumed relative within-biome homogeneity, and generated CO/sub 2/ source functions that differed dramatically from published estimates of CO/sub 2/ exchange. The differences were so great that the simple extrapolation was rejected as a means of incorporating site-specific models in a global CO/sub 2/ source function. The second extrapolation explicitly incorporated within-biome variability in the abiotic variables that drive seasonal biosphere-atmosphere CO/sub 2/ exchange. Simulated site-specific CO/sub 2/ dynamics were treated as a function of multiple random variables. The predicated regional CO/sub 2/ exchange is the computed expected value of simulated site-specific exchanges for that region times the area of the region. The test involved the regional extrapolation of tundra and a coniferous forest carbon exchange model. Comparisons between the CO/sub 2/ exchange estimated by extrapolation and published estimates of regional exchange for the latitude belt support the appropriateness of extrapolation by expected value.

OSTI ID:
5885066
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English