Abstract
Many studies report asymmetrical spatial distribution of soil respiration caused by presence of areas with significantly higher emission rates (so-called hot spots). For seasonally dry tropical forest soil respiration was measured on 1 ha plot with 20m, 5m and 1 m scale in the first half of dry season. 457 measurements made in 9 series at 54 sampling points. The results suggest that lognormal spatial distribution model appears to be much more supported rather than the normal one. A statistical method proposed for estimation the mean value and its confidence interval of lognormally distributed data. The mean emission rate E(R S ) for the lognormal distribution amounted to 4.28 µmol m -2 s -1 , the 95% confidence interval is 3.93 to 4.76 µmol m -2 s -1 . However, the standard sample mean can be used as an estimator of the mean of lognormally distributed values of soil respiration if their coefficient of variance remains approximately the same as in our study (CV=0.35). Based on the data obtained and literature sources, recommendations are given on the number of sampling points for estimating the spatial average value with a given accuracy.
Highlights
Tropical forests contain about 40% of the global vegetation carbon and are responsible for about 50% of terrestrial gross primary production
The standard sample mean can be used as an estimator of the mean of lognormally distributed values of soil respiration if their coefficient of variance remains approximately the same as in our study (CV=0.35)
The standard sample average, which suggests normal distribution, amounted to 4.31 μmol m-2 s-1, with confidence interval in 3.88 – 4.74 μmol m-2 s-1 and relative width of the confidence interval (RWCI) of 0.20, which is quite close to the results of lognormal distribution we may state that the standard sample mean can be used as an estimator of the mean of lognormally distributed values of soil respiration if their coefficient of variance remains approximately the same as in our study (CV=0.35)
Summary
Tropical forests contain about 40% of the global vegetation carbon and are responsible for about 50% of terrestrial gross primary production Owing to their large C stocks and budgets, tropical forests can affect the global C balance, and potentially play an important role in climate change, despite only covering 12% of the total land 174 GES 02|2019. Yamamoto et al 2005; Kumagai et al 2006; Kosugi et al 2008) This method can provide unreliable nocturnal CO2 fluxes under low wind speed conditions (Baldocchi 2003), which can be used as a proxy for ecosystem respiration; alternative chamber methods for measuring respiration are still important for understanding the processes of carbon flow in relation to climate change The hot spots can be not taken into account at all, or they could be treated as a measurement artifact and discarded
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