Global spatiotemporal distribution of soil respiration modeled using a global database

Abstract. The flux of carbon dioxide from the soil to the atmosphere (soil respiration) is one of the major fluxes in the global carbon cycle. At present, the accumulated field observation data cover a wide range of geographical locations and climate conditions. However, there are still large uncertainties in the magnitude and spatiotemporal variation of global soil respiration. Using a global soil respiration data set, we developed a climate-driven model of soil respiration by modifying and updating Raich's model, and the global spatiotemporal distribution of soil respiration was examined using this model. The model was applied at a spatial resolution of 0.5°and a monthly time step. Soil respiration was divided into the heterotrophic and autotrophic components of respiration using an empirical model. The estimated mean annual global soil respiration was 91 Pg C yr−1 (between 1965 and 2012; Monte Carlo 95 % confidence interval: 87–95 Pg C yr−1) and increased at the rate of 0.09 Pg C yr−2. The contribution of soil respiration from boreal regions to the total increase in global soil respiration was on the same order of magnitude as that of tropical and temperate regions, despite a lower absolute magnitude of soil respiration in boreal regions. The estimated annual global heterotrophic respiration and global autotrophic respiration were 51 and 40 Pg C yr−1, respectively. The global soil respiration responded to the increase in air temperature at the rate of 3.3 Pg C yr−1 °C−1, and Q10 = 1.4. Our study scaled up observed soil respiration values from field measurements to estimate global soil respiration and provide a data-oriented estimate of global soil respiration. The estimates are based on a semi-empirical model parameterized with over one thousand data points. Our analysis indicates that the climate controls on soil respiration may translate into an increasing trend in global soil respiration and our analysis emphasizes the relevance of the soil carbon flux from soil to the atmosphere in response to climate change. Further approaches should additionally focus on climate controls in soil respiration in combination with changes in vegetation dynamics and soil carbon stocks, along with their effects on the long temporal dynamics of soil respiration. We expect that these spatiotemporal estimates will provide a benchmark for future studies and also help to constrain process-oriented models.

[1]  Atul K. Jain,et al.  Global Carbon Budget 2015 , 2015 .

[2]  Atul K. Jain,et al.  Global patterns and controls of soil organic carbon dynamics as simulated by multiple terrestrial biosphere models: Current status and future directions , 2015, Global biogeochemical cycles.

[3]  Ranga B. Myneni,et al.  Recent trends and drivers of regional sources and sinks of carbon dioxide , 2015 .

[4]  T. Morishita,et al.  Title : Simple models for soil CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O fluxes calibrated using a Bayesian approach and multi-site data , 2015 .

[5]  A. Pitman,et al.  Response of microbial decomposition to spin-up explains CMIP5 soil carbon range until 2100 , 2014 .

[6]  Zhenghua Hu,et al.  Global annual soil respiration in relation to climate, soil properties and vegetation characteristics: Summary of available data , 2014 .

[7]  Maurizio Santoro,et al.  Global covariation of carbon turnover times with climate in terrestrial ecosystems , 2014, Nature.

[8]  Wolfgang Lucht,et al.  Quantifying uncertainties in soil carbon responses to changes in global mean temperature and precipitation , 2014 .

[9]  J. Randerson,et al.  Changes in soil organic carbon storage predicted by Earth system models during the 21st century , 2013 .

[10]  Zheng Niu,et al.  Estimating the spatial pattern of soil respiration in Tibetan alpine grasslands using Landsat TM images and MODIS data , 2013 .

[11]  J. Randerson,et al.  Changes in soil organic carbon storage predicted by Earth system models during the 21 st century , 2013 .

[12]  J. Randerson,et al.  Causes of variation in soil carbon simulations from CMIP5 Earth system models and comparison with observations , 2012 .

[13]  Benjamin Smith,et al.  Too early to infer a global NPP decline since 2000 , 2012 .

[14]  Pete Smith,et al.  How will organic carbon stocks in mineral soils evolve under future climate? Global projections using RothC for a range of climate change scenarios , 2012 .

[15]  Shoji Hashimoto,et al.  A New Estimation of Global Soil Greenhouse Gas Fluxes Using a Simple Data-Oriented Model , 2012, PloS one.

[16]  Motoko Inatomi,et al.  Water-Use Efficiency of the Terrestrial Biosphere: A Model Analysis Focusing on Interactions between the Global Carbon and Water Cycles , 2012 .

[17]  Karl E. Taylor,et al.  An overview of CMIP5 and the experiment design , 2012 .

[18]  T. Morishita,et al.  Increasing trends of soil greenhouse gas fluxes in Japanese forests from 1980 to 2009 , 2011, Scientific reports.

[19]  Akihiko Ito,et al.  A historical meta‐analysis of global terrestrial net primary productivity: are estimates converging? , 2011 .

[20]  S. Kaneko,et al.  Simple models for soil CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes calibrated using a Bayesian approach and multi-site data , 2011 .

[21]  Nuno Carvalhais,et al.  Semiempirical modeling of abiotic and biotic factors controlling ecosystem respiration across eddy covariance sites , 2011 .

[22]  J. Randerson,et al.  Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009) , 2010 .

[23]  P. Ciais,et al.  Are ecological gradients in seasonal Q10 of soil respiration explained by climate or by vegetation seasonality , 2010 .

[24]  M. Bahn,et al.  On the ‘temperature sensitivity’ of soil respiration: Can we use the immeasurable to predict the unknown? , 2010, Soil biology & biochemistry.

[25]  Maosheng Zhao,et al.  Drought-Induced Reduction in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 2000 Through 2009 , 2010, Science.

[26]  S. Seneviratne,et al.  Global Convergence in the Temperature Sensitivity of Respiration at Ecosystem Level , 2010, Science.

[27]  F. Woodward,et al.  Terrestrial Gross Carbon Dioxide Uptake: Global Distribution and Covariation with Climate , 2010, Science.

[28]  Wang Wei,et al.  Forest soil respiration and its heterotrophic and autotrophic components: Global patterns and responses to temperature and precipitation , 2010 .

[29]  M. Kirschbaum.  The temperature dependence of organic matter decomposition: seasonal temperature variations turn a sharp short‐term temperature response into a more moderate annually averaged response , 2010 .

[30]  A. Thomson,et al.  A global database of soil respiration data , 2010 .

[31]  W. Landman.  Climate change 2007: the physical science basis , 2010 .

[32]  G. Pan,et al.  Modeling interannual variability of global soil respiration from climate and soil properties , 2010 .

[33]  Ben Bond-Lamberty,et al.  Temperature-associated increases in the global soil respiration record , 2010, Nature.

[34]  Pete Smith,et al.  Carbon cycle: A warm response by soils , 2010, Nature.

[35]  Willem A. Landman,et al.  Climate change 2007 : the physical science basis, S. Solomon, D. Qin, M. Manning, M. Marquis, K. Averyt, M.M.B. Tignor, H. LeRoy Miller, Jr. and Z. Chen (Eds.) : book review , 2010 .

[36]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide , 2009 .

[37]  P. Shi,et al.  Global pattern of temperature sensitivity of soil heterotrophic respiration (Q10) and its implications for carbon‐climate feedback , 2009 .

[38]  K. Davis,et al.  A Bayesian calibration of a simple carbon cycle model: The role of observations in estimating and reducing uncertainty , 2008 .

[39]  Jari Liski,et al.  Heterotrophic soil respiration—Comparison of different models describing its temperature dependence , 2008 .

[40]  D. R. Bowling,et al.  Integration of Process-based Soil Respiration Models with Whole-Ecosystem CO2 Measurements , 2008, Ecosystems.

[41]  Markus Reichstein,et al.  CO2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database , 2007 .

[42]  Takeshi Ise,et al.  The global-scale temperature and moisture dependencies of soil organic carbon decomposition: an analysis using a mechanistic decomposition model , 2006 .

[43]  Martin Jung,et al.  Exploiting synergies of global land cover products for carbon cycle modeling , 2006 .

[44]  S. Trumbore.  Carbon respired by terrestrial ecosystems – recent progress and challenges , 2006 .

[45]  A. Ito,et al.  A comparison of simulation results from two terrestrial carbon cycle models using three climate data sets , 2006 .

[46]  Ron Smith,et al.  Bayesian calibration of process-based forest models: bridging the gap between models and data. , 2005, Tree physiology.

[47]  S. T. Gower,et al.  A global relationship between the heterotrophic and autotrophic components of soil respiration? , 2004 .

[48]  Markus Reichstein,et al.  Modeling temporal and large‐scale spatial variability of soil respiration from soil water availability, temperature and vegetation productivity indices , 2003 .

[49]  C. Tucker,et al.  Climate-Driven Increases in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 1982 to 1999 , 2003, Science.

[50]  Thomas Kaminski,et al.  Assimilating atmospheric data into a terrestrial biosphere model: A case study of the seasonal cycle , 2002 .

[51]  C. Potter,et al.  Interannual variability in global soil respiration, 1980–94 , 2002 .

[52]  Y. Yamaguchi,et al.  Comparison of global net primary production trends obtained from satellite‐based normalized difference vegetation index and carbon cycle model , 2001 .

[53]  B. Bates,et al.  A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Scheme for parameter estimation and inference in conceptual rainfall‐runoff modeling , 2001 .

[54]  P. Cox,et al.  Constraints on the temperature sensitivity of global soil respiration from the observed interannual variability in atmospheric CO2 , 2001 .

[55]  H. Storch,et al.  Extending North Atlantic Oscillation reconstructions back to 1500 , 2001 .

[56]  P. Jones,et al.  Ascribing potential causes of recent trends in free atmosphere temperatures , 2001 .

[57]  Jeffrey A. Andrews,et al.  Soil respiration and the global carbon cycle , 2000 .

[58]  Charles T. Garten,et al.  Separating root and soil microbial contributions to soil respiration: A review of methods and observations , 2000 .

[59]  D. Baldocchi,et al.  The carbon balance of tropical, temperate and boreal forests , 1999 .

[60]  E. Davidson,et al.  Soil water content and temperature as independent or confounded factors controlling soil respiration in a temperate mixed hardwood forest , 1998 .

[61]  Christopher Potter,et al.  Interannual variability in soil trace gas(CO2, N2O, NO) fluxes and analysis of controllers on regional to global scales , 1998 .

[62]  N. Batjes,et al.  Total carbon and nitrogen in the soils of the world , 1996 .

[63]  M. Kirschbaum,et al.  The temperature dependence of soil organic matter decomposition, and the effect of global warming on soil organic C storage , 1995 .

[64]  C. Potter,et al.  Global patterns of carbon dioxide emissions from soils on a 0.5-degree-grid-cell basis , 1995 .

[65]  R. K. Dixon,et al.  Carbon Pools and Flux of Global Forest Ecosystems , 1994, Science.

[66]  Hari Eswaran,et al.  Organic Carbon in Soils of the World , 1993 .

[67]  W. Schlesinger,et al.  The global carbon dioxide flux in soil respiration and its relationship to vegetation and climate , 1992 .

[68]  John Geweke,et al.  Evaluating the accuracy of sampling-based approaches to the calculation of posterior moments , 1991 .

[69]  Wilfred M. Post,et al.  Soil carbon pools and world life zones , 1982, Nature.

[70]  W. Schlesinger.  Carbon Balance in Terrestrial Detritus , 1977 .