Carbon dioxide in soil profiles: Production and temperature dependence

Abstract

The temperature dependance of soil respiration has most commonly been addressed using surface flux data, despite the fact that surface flux measurements implicate CO2 transport and storage effects that may preclude robust assessments of the temperature dependence of soil respiration. Here we examine whether soil respiration might be assessed using soil profile CO2 production inferred from soil CO2 concentration profiles. Over the 9-month study period, we observed marked similarities in the temperature response of CO2 production across four study sites of contrasting vegetation cover and land use.