Abstract
This chapter presents the spatial and temporal patterns of soil respiration. It discusses temporal variations in soil respiration at multiple time-scales—from diurnal and weekly to seasonal, interannual, and decadal and centennial. In most situations, the diurnal variation in soil respiration can be explained as a close function of soil temperature, because this is the variable that changes strongly on the diurnal scale. Diurnal variation may not be apparent for soil respiration in heavily shaded areas in forests because of the lack of variation in soil temperature. The diurnal variation can be a source of error if it is not accounted for appropriately when point measurements of soil respiration are used to estimate annual soil carbon efflux. Spatial variability in soil respiration occurs on various scales, from a few square centimeters to several hectares up to the globe. Spatial patterns emerge at the stand level, landscape, and regional scales and across biomes. This chapter gives a comparative presentation of soil respiration among ecosystem types and examines general relationships of soil respiration to ecosystem productivities, prevailing environmental variables, and soil characteristics. This chapter also examines how soil respiration varies along latitudinal, altitudinal, and topographical gradients.
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