CO2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database

  1. S. LUYSSAERT1,2,
  2. I. INGLIMA3,
  3. M. JUNG4,
  4. A. D. RICHARDSON5,
  5. M. REICHSTEIN4,
  6. D. PAPALE6,
  7. S. L. PIAO7,
  8. E. -D. SCHULZE4,
  9. L. WINGATE8,
  10. G. MATTEUCCI9,
  11. L. ARAGAO10,
  12. M. AUBINET11,
  13. C. BEER4,
  14. C. BERNHOFER12,
  15. K. G. BLACK13,14,
  16. D. BONAL15,
  17. J. -M. BONNEFOND16,
  18. J. CHAMBERS17,
  19. P. CIAIS7,
  20. B. COOK18,
  21. K. J. DAVIS19,
  22. A. J. DOLMAN20,
  23. B. GIELEN1,
  24. M. GOULDEN21,
  25. J. GRACE8,
  26. A. GRANIER22,
  27. A. GRELLE23,
  28. T. GRIFFIS24,
  29. T. GRÜNWALD12,
  30. G. GUIDOLOTTI6,
  31. P. J. HANSON25,
  32. R. HARDING26,
  33. D. Y. HOLLINGER27,
  34. L. R. HUTYRA28,
  35. P. KOLARI29,
  36. B. KRUIJT30,
  37. W. KUTSCH4,
  38. F. LAGERGREN31,
  39. T. LAURILA32,
  40. B. E. LAW2,
  41. G. LE MAIRE7,
  42. A. LINDROTH31,
  43. D. LOUSTAU16,
  44. Y. MALHI10,
  45. J. MATEUS33,
  46. M. MIGLIAVACCA34,
  47. L. MISSON35,
  48. L. MONTAGNANI36,
  49. J. MONCRIEFF8,
  50. E. MOORS29,
  51. J. W. MUNGER28,
  52. E. NIKINMAA29,
  53. S. V. OLLINGER5,
  54. G. PITA33,
  55. C. REBMANN4,
  56. O. ROUPSARD37,
  57. N. SAIGUSA38,
  58. M. J. SANZ39,
  59. G. SEUFERT40,
  60. C. SIERRA2,
  61. M. -L. SMITH27,
  62. J. TANG18,
  63. R. VALENTINI6,
  64. T. VESALA41,
  65. I. A. JANSSENS1

Article first published online: 21 AUG 2007

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01439.x

Issue

Global Change Biology

Global Change Biology

Volume 13, Issue 12, pages 2509–2537, December 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

LUYSSAERT, S., INGLIMA, I., JUNG, M., RICHARDSON, A. D., REICHSTEIN, M., PAPALE, D., PIAO, S. L., SCHULZE, E. .-D., WINGATE, L., MATTEUCCI, G., ARAGAO, L., AUBINET, M., BEER, C., BERNHOFER, C., BLACK, K. G., BONAL, D., BONNEFOND, J. .-M., CHAMBERS, J., CIAIS, P., COOK, B., DAVIS, K. J., DOLMAN, A. J., GIELEN, B., GOULDEN, M., GRACE, J., GRANIER, A., GRELLE, A., GRIFFIS, T., GRÜNWALD, T., GUIDOLOTTI, G., HANSON, P. J., HARDING, R., HOLLINGER, D. Y., HUTYRA, L. R., KOLARI, P., KRUIJT, B., KUTSCH, W., LAGERGREN, F., LAURILA, T., LAW, B. E., LE MAIRE, G., LINDROTH, A., LOUSTAU, D., MALHI, Y., MATEUS, J., MIGLIAVACCA, M., MISSON, L., MONTAGNANI, L., MONCRIEFF, J., MOORS, E., MUNGER, J. W., NIKINMAA, E., OLLINGER, S. V., PITA, G., REBMANN, C., ROUPSARD, O., SAIGUSA, N., SANZ, M. J., SEUFERT, G., SIERRA, C., SMITH, M. .-L., TANG, J., VALENTINI, R., VESALA, T. and JANSSENS, I. A. (2007), CO2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database. Global Change Biology, 13: 2509–2537. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01439.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium,

  2. 2

    College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5752, USA,

  3. 3

    Department of Environmental Sciences, Second University of Naples, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy,

  4. 4

    Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, PO Box 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany,

  5. 5

    Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Morse Hall, 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824, USA,

  6. 6

    Department of Forest Science and Environment, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy,

  7. 7

    LSCE, Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France,

  8. 8

    Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JN Scotland, UK,

  9. 9

    CNR-ISAFOM, Via Cavour 4-6, 87036 Rende, Italy,

  10. 10

    Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QW, UK,

  11. 11

    Unit of Physics, Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux, 8 Avenue de la Faculté, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium,

  12. 12

    Department of Meteorology, Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, Technische Universität Dresden, Pienner Strasse 23, 01737 Tharandt, Germany,

  13. 13

    School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland,

  14. 14

    Irish Council for Forest Research and Development (COFORD), Arena House, Arena Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, Ireland,

  15. 15

    INRA Kourou – UMR Ecofog, PO Box 709, 97387 Kourou Cedex, French Guiana,

  16. 16

    INRA, Research Unit EPHYSE, Centre de Bordeaux, BP 81, F-33883, Villenave d'Ornon, France,

  17. 17

    Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, 310 Dinwiddie Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA,

  18. 18

    Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, 1530 Cleveland Ave. N, St Paul, MN 55108, USA,

  19. 19

    Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University, 512 Walker Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA,

  20. 20

    Department of Hydrology and Geo-environmental Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands,

  21. 21

    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA,

  22. 22

    INRA EEF, 54280 Champenoux, France,

  23. 23

    Department for Ecology and Environmental Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7042, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden,

  24. 24

    Biometeorology, University of Minnesota, 55108 St Paul, MN, USA,

  25. 25

    Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 38731-6422, USA,

  26. 26

    Center of Ecology and Hydrology Edinburgh, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, UK,

  27. 27

    USDA Forest Service, 271 Mast Rd., Durham, NH 03824, USA,

  28. 28

    Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA,

  29. 29

    Department of Forest Ecology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 27, FI-00014, Finland,

  30. 30

    Alterra, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands,

  31. 31

    Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden,

  32. 32

    Finnish Meteorological Institute, PO Box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland,

  33. 33

    Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Instituto Superior Técnico, Ave. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049 Lisbon, Portugal,

  34. 34

    Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università degli Studi di Milano, Bicocca, Italy,

  35. 35

    CNRS-CEFE, 1919 route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France,

  36. 36

    Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Agency for the Environment, Via Amba Alagi 5; Forest Services, Via Brennero 6, 39100 Bolzano, Italy,

  37. 37

    CIRAD, UPR-80 ETP, avenue d'Agropolis, 34398, Montpellier, Cedex 05, France,

  38. 38

    National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST Tsukuba West, Tsukuba 305-8569, Japan,

  39. 39

    CEAM, Parque Tecnológico, c/Charles H. Darwin 14, 46980 Paterna Valencia, Spain,

  40. 40

    Joint Research Centre, Via E. Fermi 1, I-21020 Ispra (VA), Italy,

  41. 41

    Department of Physical Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 64, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

* S. Luyssaert, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium, tel. +32 3820 2289, e-mail: Sebastiaan.Luyssaert@ua.ac.be

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 21 AUG 2007
  2. Article first published online: 21 AUG 2007
  3. Received 21 September 2006; revised version received 8 June 2007 and accepted 11 May 2007

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Keywords:

  • carbon cycle;
  • CO2;
  • forest ecosystems;
  • global database;
  • gross primary productivity;
  • net ecosystem productivity;
  • net primary productivity

Abstract

Terrestrial ecosystems sequester 2.1 Pg of atmospheric carbon annually. A large amount of the terrestrial sink is realized by forests. However, considerable uncertainties remain regarding the fate of this carbon over both short and long timescales. Relevant data to address these uncertainties are being collected at many sites around the world, but syntheses of these data are still sparse. To facilitate future synthesis activities, we have assembled a comprehensive global database for forest ecosystems, which includes carbon budget variables (fluxes and stocks), ecosystem traits (e.g. leaf area index, age), as well as ancillary site information such as management regime, climate, and soil characteristics. This publicly available database can be used to quantify global, regional or biome-specific carbon budgets; to re-examine established relationships; to test emerging hypotheses about ecosystem functioning [e.g. a constant net ecosystem production (NEP) to gross primary production (GPP) ratio]; and as benchmarks for model evaluations. In this paper, we present the first analysis of this database. We discuss the climatic influences on GPP, net primary production (NPP) and NEP and present the CO2 balances for boreal, temperate, and tropical forest biomes based on micrometeorological, ecophysiological, and biometric flux and inventory estimates. Globally, GPP of forests benefited from higher temperatures and precipitation whereas NPP saturated above either a threshold of 1500 mm precipitation or a mean annual temperature of 10 °C. The global pattern in NEP was insensitive to climate and is hypothesized to be mainly determined by nonclimatic conditions such as successional stage, management, site history, and site disturbance. In all biomes, closing the CO2 balance required the introduction of substantial biome-specific closure terms. Nonclosure was taken as an indication that respiratory processes, advection, and non-CO2 carbon fluxes are not presently being adequately accounted for.

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