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Applicability of the soil gradient method for estimating soil–atmosphere CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes for steppe soils in Inner Mongolia
Benjamin Wolf,
Weiwei Chen,
Nicolas Brüggemann,
Xunhua Zheng,
Jukka Pumpanen,
Klaus Butterbach-Bahl,
Benjamin Wolf
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Search for more papers by this authorWeiwei Chen
State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS), 100029 Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorNicolas Brüggemann
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Search for more papers by this authorXunhua Zheng
State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS), 100029 Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorJukka Pumpanen
Department of Forest Ecology, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Klaus Butterbach-Bahl
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GermanySearch for more papers by this authorBenjamin Wolf,
Weiwei Chen,
Nicolas Brüggemann,
Xunhua Zheng,
Jukka Pumpanen,
Klaus Butterbach-Bahl,
Benjamin Wolf
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Search for more papers by this authorWeiwei Chen
State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS), 100029 Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorNicolas Brüggemann
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Search for more papers by this authorXunhua Zheng
State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS), 100029 Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorJukka Pumpanen
Department of Forest Ecology, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Klaus Butterbach-Bahl
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kreuzeckbahnstraße 19, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GermanySearch for more papers by this authorAbstract
For evaluating the applicability of the soil gradient method as a substitute for CO2-, CH4-, and N2O-flux measurements in steppe, we carried out chamber measurements and determined soil gas concentration at an ungrazed (UG99) and a grazed (WG) site in Inner Mongolia, China. The agreement of the concentration-based flux estimates with measured chamber-based fluxes varied largely depending on the respective GHG in the sequence CO2 > CH4 >> N2O. A calibration of the gas-transport parameter used to calculate fluxes based on soil gas concentrations improved the results considerably for CO2 and CH4. After calibration, the average deviation from the chamber-based annual cumulative flux for both sites was 11.5%, 10.5%, and 59% for CO2, CH4, and N2O. The gradient method did not constitute an adequate stand-alone substitute for greenhouse-gas flux estimation since a calibration using chamber-based measurements was necessary and vigorous production processes were confined to the uppermost, almost water-saturated soil layer.
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