2010/01/07 by Jukka Pumpanen, Bernard Longdoz, Werner L. Kutsch · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511711794.003
openalex publication_date 2010/01/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
INTRODUCTION Soil respiration is a major component in the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems and has been measured in the field for more than eight decades. In this chapter, we will describe the measurement of soil CO 2 efflux at the soil surface that can be considered as equivalent to soil CO 2 production when integrated over long time periods (week, month or season). At shorter time scales the transport of CO 2 may uncouple the soil CO 2 efflux from its production inside the soil. Different methods have been developed to measure this efflux. These methods can affect the object being measured by disturbing the biochemical processes involved in CO 2 production, the physical properties influencing CO 2 movement towards the soil surface, or by changing the environmental conditions in the soil. Therefore, soil respiration measurements in the field are one of the most difficult among the ecosystem flux measurements. So far, no single method has been established as the standard but comparisons, which give important indications on their accuracy, have been performed. The choice of the measurement methodology is not limited to that of a measurement system. The experimenter has to elaborate a protocol depending on the temporal and spatial scales studied. In this chapter, we will describe the most commonly used methodologies for measuring soil CO 2 efflux and present their history, principles and constraints (Section 2.2).