scholarly journals The use of forest stand age information in an atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> inversion applied to North America

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 5335-5348 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Deng ◽  
J. M. Chen ◽  
Y. Pan ◽  
W. Peters ◽  
R. Birdsey ◽  
...  

Abstract. Atmospheric inversions have become an important tool in quantifying carbon dioxide (CO2) sinks and sources at a variety of spatiotemporal scales, but associated large uncertainties restrain the inversion research community from reaching agreement on many important subjects. We enhanced an atmospheric inversion of the CO2 flux for North America by introducing spatially explicit information on forest stand age for US and Canada as an additional constraint, since forest carbon dynamics are closely related to time since disturbance. To use stand age information in the inversion, we converted stand age into an age factor, and included the covariances between subcontinental regions in the inversion based on the similarity of the age factors. Our inversion results show that, considering age factors, regions with recently disturbed or old forests are often nudged towards carbon sources, while regions with middle-aged productive forests are shifted towards sinks. This conforms to stand age effects observed in flux networks. At the subcontinental level, our inverted carbon fluxes agree well with continuous estimates of net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) upscaled from eddy covariance flux data based on MODIS data. Inverted fluxes with the age constraint exhibit stronger correlation to these upscaled NEE estimates than those inverted without the age constraint. While the carbon flux at the continental and subcontinental scales is predominantly determined by atmospheric CO2 observations, the age constraint is shown to have potential to improve the inversion of the carbon flux distribution among subcontinental regions, especially for regions lacking atmospheric CO2 observations.

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 4781-4817 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Deng ◽  
J. M. Chen ◽  
Y. Pan ◽  
W. Peters ◽  
R. Birdsey ◽  
...  

Abstract. Atmospheric inversions have become an important tool in quantifying carbon dioxide (CO2) sinks and sources at a variety of spatiotemporal scales, but associated large uncertainties restrain the inversion research community from reaching agreements on many important subjects. We enhanced an atmospheric inversion of the CO2 flux for North America by introducing spatially-explicit information on forest stand age for US and Canada as an additional constraint, since forest carbon dynamics are closely related to time since disturbance. To use stand age information in the inversion, we converted stand age into an age factor, and included the covariances between sub-continental regions in the inversion based on the similarity of the age factors. Our inversion results show that, considering age factors, regions with recently-disturbed or old forests are often nudged towards carbon sources, while regions with middle-aged productive forests are shifted towards sinks. This conforms to stand age effects observed in flux networks. At the sub-continental level, our inverted carbon fluxes agree well with continuous estimates of net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) upscaled from eddy covariance flux data (EC) based on MODIS data. Inverted fluxes with the age constraint exhibit stronger correlation to these upscaled NEE estimates than those inverted without the age constraint. While the carbon flux at the continental and sub-continental scales is predominantly determined by atmospheric CO2 observations, the age constraint is shown to have potential to improve the inversion of the carbon flux distribution among sub-continental regions, especially for regions lacking atmospheric CO2 observations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rödenbeck ◽  
Tim DeVries ◽  
Judith Hauck ◽  
Corinne Le Quéré ◽  
Ralph Keeling

Abstract. This study considers year-to-year and decadal variations as well as secular trends of the sea–air CO2 flux over the 1957–2020 period, as constrained by the pCO2 measurements from the SOCAT data base. In a first step, we relate interannual anomalies in ocean-internal carbon sources and sinks to local interannual anomalies in sea surface temperature (SST), the temporal changes of SST (dSST/dt), and squared wind speed (u2), employing a multi-linear regression. In the tropical Pacific, we find interannual variability to be dominated by dSST/dt, as arising from variations in the upwelling of colder and more carbon-rich waters into the mixed layer. In the eastern upwelling zones as well as in circumpolar bands in the high latitudes of both hemispheres, we find sensitivity to wind speed, compatible with the entrainment of carbon-rich water during wind-driven deepening of the mixed layer and wind-driven upwelling. In the Southern Ocean, the secular increase in wind speed leads to a secular increase in the carbon source into the mixed layer, with an estimated reduction of the sink trend in the range 17 to 42 %. In a second step, we combined the result of the multi-linear regression and an explicitly interannual pCO2-based additive correction into a “hybrid” estimate of the sea–air CO2 flux over the period 1957–2020. As a pCO2 mapping method, it combines (a) the ability of a regression to bridge data gaps and extrapolate into the early decades almost void of pCO2 data based on process-related observables and (b) the ability of an autoregressive interpolation to follow signals even if not represented in the chosen set of explanatory variables. The “hybrid” estimate can be applied as ocean flux prior for atmospheric CO2 inversions covering the whole period of atmospheric CO2 data since 1957.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 2273-2326 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rödenbeck ◽  
R. F. Keeling ◽  
D. C. E. Bakker ◽  
N. Metzl ◽  
A. Olsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface-ocean CO2 partial pressure data have been assimilated into a simple diagnostic model of surface-ocean biogeochemistry to estimate the spatio-temporal CO2 partial pressure field and ultimately the sea-air CO2 fluxes. Results compare well with the widely used monthly climatology by Takahashi et al. (2009) but also contain some short-term and interannual variations. Fitting the same model to atmospheric CO2 data yields less robust but consistent estimates, confirming that using the partial pressure based estimates as ocean prior in atmospheric CO2 inversions may improve land CO2 flux estimates. Estimated seasonality of ocean-internal carbon sources and sinks is discussed in the light of observed nutrient variations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
José Reinaldo Paranaíba Vilela Alves Teixeira

Reservoirs are globally significant sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. The patterns of spatial and temporal variability in CO2 and CH4 emission from reservoirs are still poorly studied, especially in tropical regions where hydropower is growing rapidly. We performed spatially resolved measurements of dissolved CO2 and CH4 surface water concentrations and their gas-exchange coefficients (k) to compute diffusive carbon flux from four contrasting tropical reservoirs across Brazil during different hydrological seasons. Diffusive CO2 emissions were higher during the dry season than during the rainy season, whereas there were no consistent seasonal patterns for diffusive CH4 emissions. Our results reveal that the magnitude and the spatial within-reservoir patterns of diffusive CO2 and CH4 flux varied strongly among hydrological seasons. River inflow areas were often characterized by high seasonality in diffusive flux. Areas close to the dam generally showed low seasonal variability in diffusive CH4 flux but high variability in diffusive CO2 flux. Overall, we found that reservoir areas exhibiting highest emission rates (‘hotspots’) shifted substantially across hydrological seasons. Estimates of total diffusive carbon emission from the reservoir surfaces differed between hydrological seasons by a factor up to 7 in Chapéu D’Úvas reservoir, up to 13 in Curuá-Una reservoir, up to 4 in Furnas reservoir, and up to 1.8 in Funil reservoir, indicating that spatially-resolved measurements of gas concentrations and k need to be performed at different hydrological seasons in order to constrain annual diffusive carbon emission.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Pint ◽  
Gert Everaert ◽  
Hannelore Theetaert ◽  
Michiel B. Vandegehuchte ◽  
Thanos Gkritzalis

Abstract. An important element to keep track of global change is the atmosphere–water exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ocean as it provides insight in how much CO2 is incorporated in the ocean (i.e. the ocean as a sink for CO2) or emitted to the atmosphere (i.e. the ocean as a source). To date, only few high-resolution observation sets are available to quantify the spatiotemporal variability of air–sea CO2 fluxes. In this study, we used observations of pCO2 collected daily at the ICOS station Thornton Buoy in the southern North Sea from February until December 2018 to calculate air–sea CO2 fluxes. Our results show a seasonal variability of the air–sea carbon flux, with the sea being a carbon sink from February until June switching to a carbon source in July and August, before switching back to a sink until December. We calculated that the sink was largest in April (−0.95 ± 0.90 mmol C m−2 d−1), while in August, the source was at its maximum (0.08 ± 0.13 mmol C m−2 d−1). On an annual basis, we found a sink for atmospheric CO2 of 130.19 ± 149.93 mmol C m−2 y−1. Apart from region- and basin-scale estimates of the air–sea CO2 flux, also local measurements are important to grasp local dynamics of the flux and its interactions with biogeochemical processes.


Polar Biology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1111-1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chételat ◽  
Louise Cloutier ◽  
Marc Amyot

2011 ◽  
Vol 75 (24) ◽  
pp. 7829-7854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Moosdorf ◽  
Jens Hartmann ◽  
Ronny Lauerwald ◽  
Benjamin Hagedorn ◽  
Stephan Kempe

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1562
Author(s):  
Iveta Varnagirytė-Kabašinskienė ◽  
Povilas Žemaitis ◽  
Kęstutis Armolaitis ◽  
Vidas Stakėnas ◽  
Gintautas Urbaitis

In the context of the specificity of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in afforested land, nutrient-poor Arenosols and nutrient-rich Luvisols after afforestation with coniferous and deciduous tree species were studied in comparison to the same soils of croplands and grasslands. This study analysed the changes in SOC stock up to 30 years after afforestation of agricultural land in Lithuania, representing the cool temperate moist climate region of Europe. The SOC stocks were evaluated by applying the paired-site design. The mean mass and SOC stocks of the forest floor in afforested Arenosols increased more than in Luvisols. Almost twice as much forest floor mass was observed in coniferous than in deciduous stands 2–3 decades after afforestation. The mean bulk density of fine (<2 mm) soil in the 0–30 cm mineral topsoil layer of croplands was higher than in afforested sites and grasslands. The clear decreasing trend in mean bulk density due to forest stand age with the lowest values in the 21–30-year-old stands was found in afforested Luvisols. In contrast, the SOC concentrations in the 0–30 cm mineral topsoil layer, especially in Luvisols afforested with coniferous species, showed an increasing trend due to the influence of stand age. The mean SOC values in the 0–30 cm mineral topsoil layer of Arenosols and Luvisols during the 30 years after afforestation did not significantly differ from the adjacent croplands or grasslands. The mean SOC stock slightly increased with the forest stand age in Luvisols; however, the highest mean SOC stock was detected in the grasslands. In the Arenosols, there was higher SOC accumulation in the forest floor with increasing stand age than in the Luvisols, while the proportion of SOC stocks in mineral topsoil layers was similar and more comparable to grasslands. These findings suggest encouragement of afforestation of former agricultural land under the current climate and soil characteristics in the region, but the conversion of perennial grasslands to forest land should be done with caution.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 23681-23709
Author(s):  
S. M. Miller ◽  
I. Fung ◽  
J. Liu ◽  
M. N. Hayek ◽  
A. E. Andrews

Abstract. Estimates of CO2 fluxes that are based on atmospheric data rely upon a meteorological model to simulate atmospheric CO2 transport. These models provide a quantitative link between surface fluxes of CO2 and atmospheric measurements taken downwind. Therefore, any errors in the meteorological model can propagate into atmospheric CO2 transport and ultimately bias the estimated CO2 fluxes. These errors, however, have traditionally been difficult to characterize. To examine the effects of CO2 transport errors on estimated CO2 fluxes, we use a global meteorological model-data assimilation system known as "CAM–LETKF" to quantify two aspects of the transport errors: error variances (standard deviations) and temporal error correlations. Furthermore, we develop two case studies. In the first case study, we examine the extent to which CO2 transport uncertainties can bias CO2 flux estimates. In particular, we use a common flux estimate known as CarbonTracker to discover the minimum hypothetical bias that can be detected above the CO2 transport uncertainties. In the second case study, we then investigate which meteorological conditions may contribute to month-long biases in modeled atmospheric transport. We estimate 6 hourly CO2 transport uncertainties in the model surface layer that range from 0.15 to 9.6 ppm (standard deviation), depending on location, and we estimate an average error decorrelation time of ∼2.3 days at existing CO2 observation sites. As a consequence of these uncertainties, we find that CarbonTracker CO2 fluxes would need to be biased by at least 29%, on average, before that bias were detectable at existing non-marine atmospheric CO2 observation sites. Furthermore, we find that persistent, bias-type errors in atmospheric transport are associated with consistent low net radiation, low energy boundary layer conditions. The meteorological model is not necessarily more uncertain in these conditions. Rather, the extent to which meteorological uncertainties manifest as persistent atmospheric transport biases appears to depend, at least in part, on the energy and stability of the boundary layer. Existing CO2 flux studies may be more likely to estimate inaccurate regional fluxes under those conditions.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elodie Alice Courtois ◽  
Clément Stahl ◽  
Benoit Burban ◽  
Joke Van den Berge ◽  
Daniel Berveiller ◽  
...  

Abstract. Measuring in situ soil fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) continuously at high frequency requires appropriate technology. We tested the combination of a commercial automated soil CO2 flux chamber system (LI-8100A) with a CH4 and N2O analyzer (Picarro G2308) in a tropical rainforest for 4 months. A chamber closure time of 2 minutes was sufficient for a reliable estimation of CO2 and CH4 fluxes (100 % and 98.5 % of fluxes were above Minimum Detectable Flux – MDF, respectively). This closure time was generally not suitable for a reliable estimation of the low N2O fluxes in this ecosystem but was sufficient for detecting rare major peak events. A closure time of 25 minutes was more appropriate for reliable estimation of most N2O fluxes (85.6 % of measured fluxes are above MDF ± 0.002 nmol m−2 s−1). Our study highlights the importance of adjusted closure time for each gas.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document