Abstract
Estimation of regional soil carbon flux is very important for the study of the global carbon cycle. The spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration prevents the actual status of regional soil carbon flux from being revealed by measurements of only one or a few spatial sampling positions, which are usually used by traditional studies for the limitation of measurement instruments, so measuring in many spatial positions is very necessary. However, the existing instruments are expensive and cannot communicate with each other, which prevents them from meeting the requirement of synchronous measurements in multiple positions. Therefore, we designed and implemented an instrument for soil carbon flux measuring based on dynamic chamber method, SCFSen, which can measure soil carbon flux and communicate with each other to construct a sensor network. In its working stage, a SCFSen node measures the concentration of carbon in the chamber with an infrared carbon dioxide sensor for certain times periodically, and then the changing rate of the measurements is calculated, which can be converted to the corresponding value of soil carbon flux in the position during the short period. A wireless sensor network system using SCFSens as soil carbon flux sensing nodes can carry out multi-position measurements synchronously, so as to obtain the spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration. Furthermore, the sustainability of such a wireless sensor network system makes the temporal variability of regional soil carbon flux can also be obtained. So SCFSen makes thorough monitoring and accurate estimation of regional soil carbon flux become more feasible.
Highlights
Soil respiration is a process of soil releasing carbon dioxide, which is produced by the oxidation of organic matter and the breath procedure of plant roots, and a little part of which is released by soil animals and chemical oxidation
The process of soil releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere through soil respiration is a key ecological process leading to global climate change, which has been one of the core problems concerned in global carbon cycle researches [7,8]
As Equation (11) shows, we can see that f c can be calculated when p0, T, wc and ∂tc are measured, as v and S are constant once the chamber is determined. p0, T and wc can be measured directly using corresponding sensors, so the remaining challenging issue is the measurement of changing rate of carbon dioxide concentration in the chamber
Summary
Soil respiration is a process of soil releasing carbon dioxide, which is produced by the oxidation of organic matter and the breath procedure of plant roots, and a little part of which is released by soil animals and chemical oxidation. We need measure the soil carbon flux at different time in each sampling position in the monitored region. In order to apply wireless sensor network technology to regional soil carbon flux monitoring, a basic requirement that should be met firstly is the corresponding sensor nodes. These nodes should be able to measure soil carbon flux and support communication protocol of wireless sensor networks at least. The theory, designing and implementation of a kind of soil carbon flux measuring instrument, SCFSen, which can serve as sensor nodes, are illustrated in detail in this paper.
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