Looking within and looking beyond soil respiration measurements: observing intra-site variation and patterns on the landscape.
Abstract
There are many complex and poorly understood vectors for carbon movement within the terrestrial component of the global carbon cycle . One of which is soil respiration, or the combined release of CO2 from autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolism within the soil profile. Soil respiration is controlled by soil climate and soil biota, which includes both the amount and the relative activity of respiring root and microbial tissues. Many inter-ecosystem trends have been observed and documented, but little is known about what patterns occur within a site or if trends are related, geographically, across the terrain. This research aims to determine the causes of and to quantify spatial and temporal variation of soil respiration within and among common forests of Northern Wisconsin that are largely influenced by topography. Our research takes a close look at the causes of variation between individual measurements within a site; we also expand our viewpoint by looking at topographic variation on soil respiration maps which help to visualize the effects of time, space and climatic variability. To address these tasks we ask: (1) are observed influences of below-ground biomass, and C:N on site soil respiration also visible within a site? (2) how does topography affect the drivers of soil respiration and can topography be used to model soil respiration in 3 dimensions? By addressing these objectives, it should be possible to further explore one critical aspect of the carbon cycle and perhaps learn more about future biosphere-atmosphere interactions.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUFM.B51A0936M
- Keywords:
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- 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805);
- 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- 0400 Biogeosciences