C. L. Phillips

High-frequency analysis of the complex linkage between soil CO 2 fluxes, photosynthesis and environmental variables

High-frequency soil CO(2) flux data are valuable for providing new insights into the processes of soil CO(2) production. A record of hourly soil CO(2) fluxes from a semi-arid ponderosa pine stand was spatially and temporally deconstructed in attempts to determine if variation could be explained by logical drivers using (i) CO(2) production depths, (ii) relationships and lags between fluxes and soil temperatures, or (iii) the role of canopy assimilation in soil CO(2) flux variation. Relationships between temperature and soil fluxes were difficult to establish at the hourly scale because diel cycles of soil fluxes varied seasonally, with the peak of flux rates occurring later in the day as soil water content decreased. Using a simple heat transport/gas diffusion model to estimate the time and depth of CO(2) flux production, we determined that the variation in diel soil CO(2) flux patterns could not be explained by changes in diffusion rates or production from deeper soil profiles. We tested for the effect of gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) by minimizing soil flux covariance with temperature and moisture using only data from discrete bins of environmental conditions (±1 °C soil temperature at multiple depths, precipitation-free periods and stable soil moisture). Gross ecosystem productivity was identified as a possible driver of variability at the hourly scale during the growing season, with multiple lags between ~5, 15 and 23 days. Additionally, the chamber-specific lags between GEP and soil CO(2) fluxes appeared to relate to combined path length for carbon flow (top of tree to chamber center). In this sparse and heterogeneous forested system, the potential link between CO(2) assimilation and soil CO(2) flux may be quite variable both temporally and spatially. For model applications, it is important to note that soil CO(2) fluxes are influenced by many biophysical factors, which may confound or obscure relationships with logical environmental drivers and act at multiple temporal and spatial scales; therefore, caution is needed when attributing soil CO(2) fluxes to covariates like temperature, moisture and GEP.

Soil moisture effects on the carbon isotope composition of soil respiration

The carbon isotopic composition (delta(13)C) of recently assimilated plant carbon is known to depend on water-stress, caused either by low soil moisture or by low atmospheric humidity. Air humidity has also been shown to correlate with the delta(13)C of soil respiration, which suggests indirectly that recently fixed photosynthates comprise a substantial component of substrates consumed by soil respiration. However, there are other reasons why the delta(13)CO(2) of soil efflux may change with moisture conditions, which have not received as much attention. Using a combination of greenhouse experiments and modeling, we examined whether moisture can cause changes in fractionation associated with (1) non-steady-state soil CO(2) transport, and (2) heterotrophic soil-respired delta(13)CO(2). In a first experiment, we examined the effects of soil moisture on total respired delta(13)CO(2) by growing Douglas fir seedlings under high and low soil moisture conditions. The measured delta(13)C of soil respiration was 4.7 per thousand more enriched in the low-moisture treatment; however, subsequent investigation with an isotopologue-based gas diffusion model suggested that this result was probably influenced by gas transport effects. A second experiment examined the heterotrophic component of soil respiration by incubating plant-free soils, and showed no change in microbial-respired delta(13)CO(2) across a large moisture range. Our results do not rule out the potential influence of recent photosynthates on soil-respired delta(13)CO(2), but they indicate that the expected impacts of photosynthetic discrimination may be similar in direction and magnitude to those from gas transport-related fractionation. Gas transport-related fractionation may operate as an alternative or an additional factor to photosynthetic discrimination to explain moisture-related variation in soil-respired delta(13)CO(2).

A practical approach for uncertainty quantification of high‐frequency soil respiration using Forced Diffusion chambers

This paper examines the sources of uncertainty for the Forced Diffusion (FD) chamber soil respiration (Rs) measurement technique and demonstrates a protocol for uncertainty quantification that could be appropriate with any soil flux technique. Here we sought to quantify and compare the three primary sources of uncertainty in Rs: (1) instrumentation error; (2) scaling error, which stems from the spatial variability of Rs; and (3) random error, which arises from stochastic or unpredictable variation in environmental drivers and was quantified from repeated observations under a narrow temperature, moisture, and time range. In laboratory studies, we found that FD instrumentation error remained constant as Rs increased. In field studies from five North American ecosystems, we found that as Rs increased from winter to peak growing season, random error increased linearly with average flux by about 40% of average Rs. Random error not only scales with soil flux but scales in a consistent way (same slope) across ecosystems. Scaling error, measured at one site, similarly increased linearly with average Rs, by about 50% of average Rs. Our findings are consistent with previous findings for both soil fluxes and eddy covariance fluxes across other northern temperate ecosystems that showed random error scales linearly with flux magnitude with a slope of ~0.2. Although the mechanistic basis for this scaling of random error is unknown, it is suggestive of a broadly applicable rule for predicting flux random error. Also consistent with previous studies, we found the random error of FD follows a Laplace (double-exponential) rather than a normal (Gaussian) distribution.

Observations of 14CO2 in ecosystem respiration from a temperate deciduous forest in Northern Wisconsin

The 14CO2 composition of plant and soil respiration can be used to determine the residence time of photosynthetically fixed carbon before it is released back to the atmosphere. To estimate the residence time of actively cycled carbon in a temperate forest, we employed two approaches for estimating the Δ14CO2 of ecosystem respiration (Δ14C-Reco) at the Willow Creek AmeriFlux site in Northern Wisconsin, USA. Our first approach was to construct nighttime Keeling plots from subcanopy profiles of Δ14CO2 and CO2, providing estimates of Δ14C-Reco of 121.7‰ in June and 42.0‰ in August 2012. These measurements are likely dominated by soil fluxes due to proximity to the ground level. Our second approach utilized samples taken over 20 months within the forest canopy and from 396 m above ground level at the nearby LEF NOAA tall tower site (Park Falls, WI). In this canopy-minus-background approach we employed a mixing model described by Miller and Tans (2003) for estimating isotopic sources by subtracting time-varying background conditions. For the period from May 2011 to December 2012 the estimated Δ14C-Reco using the Miller-Tans model was 76.8‰. Together, these Δ14C-Reco values represent mean Reco carbon ages of approximately 1–19 years. We also found that heterotrophic soil-respired Δ 14C at Willow Creek was 5–38‰ higher (i.e., 1–10 years older) than predicted by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach global biosphere carbon model for the 1 × 1 pixel nearest to the site. This study provides much needed observational constraints of ecosystem carbon residence times, which are a major source of uncertainty in terrestrial carbon cycle models.

Strong regional atmospheric 14C signature of respired CO2 observed from a tall tower over the midwestern United States

Radiocarbon in CO2 ((CO2)-C-14) measurements can aid in discriminating between fast ( 5-10 years) cycling of C between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere due to the 14C disequilibrium between atmospheric and terrestrial C. However, (CO2)-C-14 in the atmosphere is typically much more strongly impacted by fossil fuel emissions of CO2, and, thus, observations often provide little additional constraints on respiratory flux estimates at regional scales. Here we describe a data set of (CO2)-C-14 observations from a tall tower in northern Wisconsin (USA) where fossil fuel influence is far enough removed that during the summer months, the biospheric component of the (CO2)-C-14 budget dominates. We find that the terrestrial biosphere is responsible for a significant contribution to (CO2)-C-14 that is 2-3 times higher than predicted by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach terrestrial ecosystem model for observations made in 2010. This likely includes a substantial contribution from the North American boreal ecoregion, but transported biospheric emissions from outside the model domain cannot be ruled out. The (CO2)-C-14 enhancement also appears somewhat decreased in observations made over subsequent years, suggesting that 2010 may be anomalous. With these caveats acknowledged, we discuss the implications of the observation/ model comparison in terms of possible systematic biases in the model versus short-term anomalies in the observations. Going forward, this isotopic signal could be exploited as an important indicator to better constrain both the long-term carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems and the short-term impact of disturbance-based loss of carbon to the atmosphere.

Response to Comment on “The whole-soil carbon flux in response to warming”

Temperature records and model predictions demonstrate that deep soils warm at the same rate as surface soils, contrary to Xiao et al.’s assertions. In response to Xiao et al.’s critique of our Q10 analysis, we present the results with all data points included, which show Q10 values of >2 throughout the soil profile, indicating that all soil depths responded to warming.