Assimilating phenology datasets automatically across ICOS ecosystem stations

The presence or absence of leaves within plant canopies exert a strong influence on the carbon, water and energy balance of ecosystems. Identifying key changes in the timing of leaf elongation and senescence during the year can help to understand the sensitivity of different plant functional types to changes in temperature. When recorded over many years these data can provide information on the response of ecosystems to long-term changes in climate. The installation of digital cameras that take images at regular intervals of plant canopies across the Integrated Carbon Observation System ecosystem stations will provide a reliable and important record of variations in canopy state, colour and the timing of key phenological events. Here, we detail the procedure for the implementation of cameras on Integrated Carbon Observation System flux towers and how these images will help us understand the impact of leaf phenology and ecosystem function, distinguish changes in canopy structure from leaf physiology and at larger scales will assist in the validation of (future) remote sensing products. These data will help us improve the representation of phenological responses to climatic variability across Integrated Carbon Observation System stations and the terrestrial biosphere through the improvement of model algorithms and the provision of validation datasets.

Sampling and collecting foliage elements for the determination of the foliar nutrients in ICOS ecosystem stations

The nutritional status of plant canopies in terms of nutrients (C, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn) exerts a strong influence on the carbon cycle and energy balance of terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, in order to account for the spatial and temporal variations in nutritional status of the plant species composing the canopy, we detail the methodology applied to achieve consistent time-series of leaf mass to area ratio and nutrient content of the foliage within the footprint of the Integrated Carbon Observation System Ecosystem stations. The guidelines and defi-nitions apply to most terrestrial ecosystems.

Towards long-term standardised carbon and greenhouse gas observations for monitoring Europe’s terrestrial ecosystems: a review

Research infrastructures play a key role in launching a new generation of integrated long-term, geographically distributed observation programmes designed to monitor climate change, better understand its impacts on global ecosystems, and evaluate possible mitigation and adaptation strategies. The pan-European Integrated Carbon Observation System combines carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG; CO2, CH4, N2O, H2O) observations within the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems and oceans. High-precision measurements are obtained using standardised methodologies, are centrally processed and openly available in a traceable and verifiable fashion in combination with detailed metadata. The Integrated Carbon Observation System ecosystem station network aims to sample climate and land-cover variability across Europe. In addition to GHG flux measurements, a large set of complementary data (including management practices, vegetation and soil characteristics) is collected to support the interpretation, spatial upscaling and modelling of observed ecosystem carbon and GHG dynamics. The applied sampling design was developed and formulated in protocols by the scientific community, representing a trade-off between an ideal dataset and practical feasibility. The use of open-access, high-quality and multi-level data products by different user communities is crucial for the Integrated Carbon Observation System in order to achieve its scientific potential and societal value.

Importance of reporting ancillary site characteristics, and management and disturbance information at ICOS stations

There are many factors that influence ecosystem scale carbon, nitrogen and greenhouse gas dynamics, including the inherent heterogeneity of soils and vegetation, anthropogenic management interventions, and biotic and abiotic disturbance events. It is important therefore, to document the characteristics of the soils and vegetation and to accurately report all management activities, and disturbance events to aid the interpretation of collected data, and to determine whether the ecosystem either amplifies or mitigates climate change. This paper outlines the importance of assessing both the spatial and temporal variability of soils and vegetation and to report all management events, the import or export of C or N from the ecosystem, and the occurrence of biotic/abiotic disturbances at ecosystem stations of the Integrated Carbon Observation System, a pan-European research infrastructure.

Soil-meteorological measurements at ICOS monitoring stations in terrestrial ecosystems

The Integrated Carbon Observation System is a pan-European research infrastructure providing standardized, long-term observations of greenhouse gas concentrations and earth-atmosphere greenhouse gas interactions. The terrestrial component of Integrated Carbon Observation System comprises a network of monitoring stations in terrestrial ecosystems where the principal activity is the measurement of ecosystem-atmosphere fluxes of greenhouse gases and energy by means of the eddy covariance technique. At each station a large set of ancillary variables needed for the interpretation of observed fluxes and for process studies is additionally monitored. This set includes a subset of variables that describe the thermal and moisture conditions of the soil and which are here conveniently referred to as soil-meteorological variables: soil temperature, volumetric soil water content, water table depth, and soil heat flux density. This paper describes the standard methodology that has been developped for the monitoring of these variables at the ecosystem stations.

Soil sampling and preparation for monitoring soil carbon

There is an urgent need for standardized monitoring of existing soil organic carbon stocks in order to accurately quantify potential negative or positive feedbacks with climate change on carbon fluxes. Given the uncertainty of flux measurements at the ecosystem scale, obtaining precise estimates of changes in soil organic carbon stocks is essential to provide an independent assessment of long-term net ecosystem carbon exchange. Here we describe the standard procedure to monitor the soil organic carbon stocks within the footprint of an eddy covariance flux tower, as applied at ecosystem stations of the Integrated Carbon Observation System. The objectives are i) to ensure comparability between sites and to be able to draw general conclusions from the results obtained across many ecosystems and ii) to optimize the sampling design in order to be able to prove changes in time using a reduced number of samples. When sampling a given site at two periods, the objective is generally to assess if changes occurred in time. The changes that can be detected (i.e., demonstrated as statistically significant) depend on several parameters such as the number of samples, the spatial sampling design, and the inherent within-site soil variability. Depending on these parameters, one can define the ‘minimum detectable change’ which is the minimum value of changed that can be statistically proved. Using simulation studies, we address the trade-off between increasing the number of samples and getting lower minimum detectable changes of soil organic carbon stocks.

Standardisation of eddy-covariance flux measurements of methane and nitrous oxide

Commercially available fast-response analysers for methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have recently become more sensitive, more robust and easier to operate. This has made their application for long-term flux measurements with the eddy-covariance method more feasible. Unlike for carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapour (H2O), there have so far been no guidelines on how to optimise and standardise the measurements. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of the various steps of the measurements and discusses aspects such as instrument selection, setup and maintenance, data processing as well as the additional measurements needed to aid interpretation and gap-filling. It presents the methodological protocol for eddy covariance measurements of CH4 and N2O fluxes as agreed for the ecosystem station network of the pan-European Research Infrastructure Integrated Carbon Observation System and provides a first international standard that is suggested to be adopted more widely. Fluxes can be episodic and the processes controlling the fluxes are complex, preventing simple mechanistic gap-filling strategies. Fluxes are often near or below the detection limit, requiring additional care during data processing. The protocol sets out the best practice for these conditions to avoid biasing the results and long-term budgets. It summarises the current approach to gap-filling.

Standardisation of chamber technique for CO2, N2O and CH4 fluxes measurements from terrestrial ecosystems

Chamber measurements of trace gas fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere have been conducted for almost a century. Different chamber techniques, including static and dynamic, have been used with varying degrees of success in estimating greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) fluxes. However, all of these have certain disadvantages which have either prevented them from providing an adequate estimate of greenhouse gas exchange or restricted them to be used under limited conditions. Generally, chamber methods are relatively low in cost and simple to operate. In combination with the appropriate sample allocations, chamber methods are adaptable for a wide variety of studies from local to global spatial scales, and they are particularly well suited for in situ and laboratory-based studies. Consequently, chamber measurements will play an important role in the portfolio of the Pan-European long-term research infrastructure Integrated Carbon Observation System. The respective working group of the Integrated Carbon Observation System Ecosystem Monitoring Station Assembly has decided to ascertain standards and quality checks for automated and manual chamber systems instead of defining one or several standard systems provided by commercial manufacturers in order to define minimum requirements for chamber measurements. The defined requirements and recommendations related to chamber measurements are described here.

Ancillary vegetation measurements at ICOS ecosystem stations

The Integrated Carbon Observation System is a Pan-European distributed research infrastructure that has as its main goal to monitor the greenhouse gas balance of Europe. The ecosystem component of Integrated Carbon Observation System consists of a multitude of stations where the net greenhouse gas exchange is monitored continuously by eddy covariance measurements while, in addition many other measurements are carried out that are a key to an understanding of the greenhouse gas balance. Amongst them are the continuous meteorological measurements and a set of non-continuous measurements related to vegetation. The latter include Green Area Index, aboveground biomass and litter biomass. The standardized methodology that is used at the Integrated Carbon Observation System ecosystem stations to monitor these vegetation related variables differs between the ecosystem types that are represented within the network, whereby in this paper we focus on forests, grasslands, croplands and mires. For each of the variables and ecosystems a spatial and temporal sampling design was developed so that the variables can be monitored in a consistent way within the ICOS network. The standardisation of the methodology to collect Green Area Index, above ground biomass and litter biomass and the methods to evaluate the quality of the collected data ensures that all stations within the ICOS ecosystem network produce data sets with small and similar errors, which allows for inter-comparison comparisons across the Integrated Carbon Observation System ecosystem network.

ICOS eddy covariance flux-station site setup: a review

The Integrated Carbon Observation System Research Infrastructure aims to provide long-term, continuous observations of sources and sinks of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapour. At ICOS ecosystem stations, the principal technique for measurements of ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of GHGs is the eddy-covariance technique. The establishment and setup of an eddy-covariance tower have to be carefully reasoned to ensure high quality flux measurements being representative of the investigated ecosystem and comparable to measurements at other stations. To fulfill the requirements needed for flux determination with the eddy-covariance technique, variations in GHG concentrations have to be measured at high frequency, simultaneously with the wind velocity, in order to fully capture turbulent fluctuations. This requires the use of high-frequency gas analysers and ultrasonic anemometers. In addition, to analyse flux data with respect to environmental conditions but also to enable corrections in the post-processing procedures, it is necessary to measure additional abiotic variables in close vicinity to the flux measurements. Here we describe the standards the ICOS ecosystem station network has adopted for GHG flux measurements with respect to the setup of instrumentation on towers to maximize measurement precision and accuracy while allowing for flexibility in order to observe specific ecosystem features.