Commentary: Carbon Metabolism of the Terrestrial Biosphere: A Multitechnique Approach for Improved Understanding |
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Authors: | J G Canadell H A Mooney D D Baldocchi J A Berry J R Ehleringer C B Field S T Gower D Y Hollinger J E Hunt R B Jackson S W Running G R Shaver W Steffen S E Trumbore R Valentini B Y Bond |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Arctic Biology Department of Biology &; Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA;(2) School of Earth Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;(3) Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA |
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Abstract: | Understanding terrestrial carbon metabolism is critical because terrestrial ecosystems play a major role in the global carbon
cycle. Furthermore, humans have severely disrupted the carbon cycle in ways that will alter the climate system and directly
affect terrestrial metabolism. Changes in terrestrial metabolism may well be as important an indicator of global change as
the changing temperature signal. Improving our understanding of the carbon cycle at various spatial and temporal scales will
require the integration of multiple, complementary and independent methods that are used by different research communities.
Tools such as air sampling networks, inverse numerical methods, and satellite data (top-down approaches) allow us to study
the strength and location of the global- and continental-scale carbon sources and sinks. Bottom-up studies provide estimates
of carbon fluxes at finer spatial scales and examine the mechanisms that control fluxes at the ecosystem, landscape, and regional
scales. Bottom-up approaches include comparative and process studies (for example, ecosystem manipulative experiments) that
provide the necessary mechanistic information to develop and validate terrestrial biospheric models. An iteration and reiteration
of top-down and bottom-up approaches will be necessary to help constrain measurements at various scales. We propose a major
international effort to coordinate and lead research programs of global scope of the carbon cycle.
Received 7 May 1999; accepted 28 September 1999. |
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Keywords: | : biosphere metabolism carbon cycle carbon fluxes global change terrestrial ecosystems |
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