02/22/2011

Improving Our Understanding of Carbon Fluxes in Diverse Ecosystems

Summary

AmeriFlux is a long-term carbon dioxide measuring and monitoring network to help define the global carbon dioxide budget, improve predictions of future carbon dioxide concentrations, and enhance understanding of net ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration of the terrestrial biosphere. DOE scientists studied key environmental and meteorological drivers from different vegetation types at 56 AmeriFlux sites that influence their ability to measure the fluxes of carbon dioxide. Using 305 site years worth of data and a statistical analysis of the cluster differences, the authors identified light intensity, vegetation type, and water vapor as key factors that impact the pattern and magnitude of the turbulent exchange. These results will improve our ability to measure and model carbon dioxide fluxes in diverse ecosystems.

References

Schmidt, A., C. Hanson, J. Kathilankal, and B. E. Law. 2011. “Classification and Assessment of Turbulent Fluxes above Ecosystems in North America with Self-Organizing Feature Map Networks,” Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 151, 508–20.