Collar Properties and Measurement Time Confer Minimal Bias Overall on Annual Soil Respiration Estimates in a Global Database

Abstract

AbstractMeasuring the soil‐to‐atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) flux (soil respiration, RS) is important to understanding terrestrial carbon balance and to forecasting climate change. Such measurements are frequently made using measurement collars permanently inserted into the soil surface. However, differences in measurement duration and frequency, as well as collar properties, may lead to biases in the estimation of annual RS. Using a newly updated global RS database (SRDB‐V5), we investigated the annual RS bias associated with five methodological factors: collar height, collar coverage area, collar insertion depth, measurement duration, and measurement frequency. We found that annual RS was negatively correlated with collar insertion depth, consistent with the idea that collar insertion cuts roots and thus reduces RS. Annual RS was also negatively related with collar height and collar coverage area, perhaps because uniform head‐space mixing is difficult to achieve in larger volume chambers; however, these effects were quantitatively small (bias of ~2% to 10% of mean RS). We found no correlation of measurement duration or measurement frequency with annual RS. These findings suggest that variation in RS methodology generally introduces minimal bias overall. Therefore, compilations of minimally adjusted annual RS measurements provide a reliable resource for synthesis studies, global annual RS modeling, and investigation of how soil carbon responds to climate change.