Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes

Quantifying nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes, a potent greenhouse gas, from soils is necessary to improve our knowledge of terrestrial N2O losses. Developing universal sampling frequencies for calculating annual N2O fluxes is difficult, as fluxes are renowned for their high temporal variability. We demons...

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Main Authors: Barton, L., Wolf, B., Rowlings, D., Scheer, C., Kiese, R., Grace, P., Stefanova, Katia, Butterbach-Bahl, K.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68790
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author Barton, L.
Wolf, B.
Rowlings, D.
Scheer, C.
Kiese, R.
Grace, P.
Stefanova, Katia
Butterbach-Bahl, K.
author_facet Barton, L.
Wolf, B.
Rowlings, D.
Scheer, C.
Kiese, R.
Grace, P.
Stefanova, Katia
Butterbach-Bahl, K.
author_sort Barton, L.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Quantifying nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes, a potent greenhouse gas, from soils is necessary to improve our knowledge of terrestrial N2O losses. Developing universal sampling frequencies for calculating annual N2O fluxes is difficult, as fluxes are renowned for their high temporal variability. We demonstrate daily sampling was largely required to achieve annual N2O fluxes within 10% of the "best" estimate for 28 annual datasets collected from three continents - Australia, Europe and Asia. Decreasing the regularity of measurements either under- or overestimated annual N2O fluxes, with a maximum overestimation of 935%. Measurement frequency was lowered using a sampling strategy based on environmental factors known to affect temporal variability, but still required sampling more than once a week. Consequently, uncertainty in current global terrestrial N2O budgets associated with the upscaling of field-based datasets can be decreased significantly using adequate sampling frequencies.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-687902018-09-14T03:55:18Z Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes Barton, L. Wolf, B. Rowlings, D. Scheer, C. Kiese, R. Grace, P. Stefanova, Katia Butterbach-Bahl, K. Quantifying nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes, a potent greenhouse gas, from soils is necessary to improve our knowledge of terrestrial N2O losses. Developing universal sampling frequencies for calculating annual N2O fluxes is difficult, as fluxes are renowned for their high temporal variability. We demonstrate daily sampling was largely required to achieve annual N2O fluxes within 10% of the "best" estimate for 28 annual datasets collected from three continents - Australia, Europe and Asia. Decreasing the regularity of measurements either under- or overestimated annual N2O fluxes, with a maximum overestimation of 935%. Measurement frequency was lowered using a sampling strategy based on environmental factors known to affect temporal variability, but still required sampling more than once a week. Consequently, uncertainty in current global terrestrial N2O budgets associated with the upscaling of field-based datasets can be decreased significantly using adequate sampling frequencies. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68790 10.1038/srep15912 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Nature Publishing Group fulltext
spellingShingle Barton, L.
Wolf, B.
Rowlings, D.
Scheer, C.
Kiese, R.
Grace, P.
Stefanova, Katia
Butterbach-Bahl, K.
Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
title Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
title_full Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
title_fullStr Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
title_full_unstemmed Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
title_short Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
title_sort sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68790