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The impact of atmospheric reactive nitrogen (Nr) deposition on carbon (C) sequestration in soils and biomass of unfertilized, natural, semi-natural and forest ecosystems has been much debated. Many previous results of this dC∕dN response were based on changes in carbon stocks from periodical soil and ecosystem inventories, associated with estimates of Nr deposition obtained from large-scale chemical transport models. This study and a companion paper (Flechard et al., 2020) strive to reduce uncertainties of N effects on C sequestration by linking multi-annual gross and net ecosystem productivity estimates from 40 eddy covariance flux towers across Europe to local measurement-based estimates of dry and wet Nr deposition from a dedicated collocated monitoring network. To identify possible ecological drivers and processes affecting the interplay between C and Nr inputs and losses, these data were also combined with in situ flux measurements of NO, N2O and CH4 fluxes; soil NO−3 leaching sampling; and results of soil incubation experiments for N and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as surveys of available data from online databases and from the literature, together with forest ecosystem (BASFOR) modelling. Multi-year averages of net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in forests ranged from −70 to 826 g C m−2 yr−1 at total wet + dry inorganic Nr deposition rates (Ndep) of 0.3 to 4.3 g N m−2 yr−1 and from −4 to 361 g C m−2 yr−1 at Ndep rates of 0.1 to 3.1 g N m−2 yr−1 in short semi-natural vegetation (moorlands, wetlands and unfertilized extensively managed grasslands). The GHG budgets of the forests were strongly dominated by CO2 exchange, while CH4 and N2O exchange comprised a larger proportion of the GHG balance in short semi-natural vegetation. Uncertainties in elemental budgets were much larger for nitrogen than carbon, especially at sites with elevated Ndep where Nr leaching losses were also very large, and compounded by the lack of reliable data on organic nitrogen and N2 losses by denitrification. Nitrogen losses in the form of NO, N2O and especially NO−3 were on average 27 % (range 6 %–54 %) of Ndep at sites with Ndep 3 g N m−2 yr−1. Such large levels of Nr loss likely indicate that different stages of N saturation occurred at a number of sites. The joint analysis of the C and N budgets provided further hints that N saturation could be detected in altered patterns of forest growth. Net ecosystem productivity increased with Nr deposition up to 2–2.5 g N m−2 yr−1, with large scatter associated with a wide range in carbon sequestration efficiency (CSE, defined as the NEP ∕ GPP ratio). At elevated Ndep levels (> 2.5 g N m−2 yr−1), where inorganic Nr losses were also increasingly large, NEP levelled off and then decreased. The apparent increase in NEP at low to intermediate Ndep levels was partly the result of geographical cross-correlations between Ndep and climate, indicating that the actual mean dC∕dN response at individual sites was significantly lower than would be suggested by a simple, straightforward regression of NEP vs. Ndep. Financial support. This research has been supported by the Acknowledgements. The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the European Commission through the two FP6 integrated projects CarboEurope Integrated Project (project no. GOCE-CT-2003-505572) and NitroEurope Integrated Project (project no. 017841), the FP7 ECLAIRE project (grant agreement no. 282910), and the ABBA COST Action ES0804. We are also thankful for funding from the French GIP-ECOFOR consortium under the F-ORE-T forest observation and experimentation network, as well as from the MDM-2017-0714 Spanish grant. We are grateful to Christian Bernhofer, Robert Clement, Han Dolman, Axel Don, Eric Dufrêne, Damiano Gianelle, Ruediger Grote, Anders Lindroth, John Moncrieff, Dario Papale, Corinna Rebmann and Alex Vermeulen for the data they provided, as well as to Klau-dia Ziemblińska for her comments on the paper. Computer time for EMEP model runs was supported by the Research Council of Norway through the NOTUR project EMEP (NN2890K). Finalization of the paper was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering national capability. We also wish to thank two anonymous referees for their constructive criticism of the paper.

Research infrastructures play a key role in launching a new generation of integrated long-Term, geographically distributed observation programmes designed to monitor climate change, better understand its impacts on global ecosystems, and evaluate possible mitigation and adaptation strategies. The pan-European Integrated Carbon Observation System combines carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG; CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, H 2 O) observations within the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems and oceans. High-precision measurements are obtained using standardised methodologies, are centrally processed and openly available in a traceable and verifiable fashion in combination with detailed metadata. The Integrated Carbon Observation System ecosystem station network aims to sample climate and land-cover variability across Europe. In addition to GHG flux measurements, a large set of complementary data (including management practices, vegetation and soil characteristics) is collected to support the interpretation, spatial upscaling and modelling of observed ecosystem carbon and GHG dynamics. The applied sampling design was developed and formulated in protocols by the scientific community, representing a trade-off between an ideal dataset and practical feasibility. The use of open-Access, high-quality and multi-level data products by different user communities is crucial for the Integrated Carbon Observation System in order to achieve its scientific potential and societal value.

Gravitational flows generated on a gentle slope in stable conditions were analysed at a forested site at Vielsalm in Belgium. There were two distinct situations at the site, one corresponding to vertical convergence, characterised by a negative vertical velocity at the canopy top and horizontal velocity divergence below the canopy, the other corresponding to an equilibrium situation without any vertical movement. The causes of these two distinct flow patterns were analysed. These measurements combined with those of the horizontal CO2 concentration gradient below the canopy supported the dilution hypothesis suggested by Aubinet et al. (2003): the horizontal CO2 concentration gradient is negative in convergence situations but slightly positive in equilibrium conditions. The existence of such patterns allows us to confirm the coherence of advection observations made at the site. However, the sum of turbulent CO2 flux, changes in CO2 storage and advective terms were shown to greatly overestimate the expected net ecosystem exchange in the convergence conditions. The most probable cause was identified as being a poor estimate of the vertical profile of the vertical velocity component.

Carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas fluxes in grassland. A review. Grassland carbon (C) sequestration can play an important role in mitigating total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of livestock production systems. An accurate inventory of livestock production system contribution to GHG emissions requires to think in terms of global budget, by considering both the GHG sources and the mitigation potential trough grassland soil carbon sequestration. There is a huge variability in C and GHG balances of grasslands that is mainly due to management practices and climatic conditions. The present article shows that, to reduce the uncertainties of the results, long term measurements at the field scale are necessary. Also, it shows the importance of taking into account the fluxes of the three main GHGs (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane) into account when calculating the GHG budget. This article also highlights the need for a better understanding of the mechanisms driving the fluxes, in relation to environmental factors and management practices, in order to propose mitigation strategies able to enhance soil carbon sequestration in soils and to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

CO (2) fluxes were measured during 18 months in a forest and a savannah in northern Benin. Higher values of carbon fluxes were found during the wet season at each site. A strong dependency of carbon fluxes on water relations was found in two contrasting sites. The forest sequestered 640 +/- 50 and the savannah 190 +/- 40 g C m (-2) year (-1) . In West Africa, the main mechanisms or factors governing the dynamics of ecosystems, especially the dynamics of the carbon fluxes and productivity, still remain less known. This study reports the carbon fluxes over two contrasting ecosystems, notably a protected forest (lat 9.79A degrees N, long 1.72A degrees E, alt 414 m) and a cultivated savannah (lat 9.74A degrees N, long 1.60A degrees E, alt 449 m) in northern Benin. The two sites were among those equipped by the AMMA-CATCH observatory and Ou,m, 2025 project. Flux data were analyzed at the daily and seasonal scales in order to understand their controlling variables. We discussed the patterns of CO2 fluxes and the characteristics of the two ecosystems. The study also focused on the different water usage strategies developed by the two ecosystems since the alternation between dry and wet seasons highly influenced the seasonal dynamics. Finally, the annual carbon sequestration was estimated together with its uncertainty. The carbon fluxes were measured during 18 months (July 2008-December 2009) by an eddy-covariance system over two contrasting sites in northern Benin. Fluxes data were computed following the standard procedure. The responses of CO2 fluxes to the principal climatic and edaphic factors, and the canopy conductance were studied. A clear CO2 fluxes response to main environmental factors was observed, however with difference according to the seasons and vegetation types. The ecosystem respiration showed the highest values during the wet season and a progressive decrease from wet to dry periods. Also, the carbon uptake values were high during the wet period, but low during the dry period. However, the CO2 fluxes for the protected forest were always higher than that for the cultivated savannah within each defined period. This was due to the seasonal changes not only in phenology and physiology but also to the acclimation to environmental conditions, especially to the soil water availability. The water use efficiency was influenced by VPD during the day conditions for two ecosystems. However, the VPD response curve of water usage was relatively constant for the protected forest during the transitional and wet seasons. In contrary, for the cultivated savannah the VPD response decreased about 46 % from transitional dry-wet to wet seasons and remained relatively constant until transitional wet-dry season. The close relationships between the net CO2 assimilation and the canopy conductance were found for the two ecosystems. This suggests a regulation of the stomata by a partial stomatal closure besides the radiation control. Finally, the forest sequestered at the annual scale 640 +/- 50 and the savannah 190 +/- 40 g C m(-2) year(-1). We conclude with a strong relation between the carbon fluxes and water in the two investigated ecosystems. Apart from the radiation control, the stomata also play an important role in the regulation of the CO2 assimilation in the two ecosystems.

Introduction. En Afrique de l’Ouest comme ailleurs dans d’autres régions du monde, la préservation des écosystèmes terrestres s’avère primordiale pour toute politique d’atténuation des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, en particulier du dioxyde de carbone. Une évaluation pertinente de la contribution d’une région donnée au cycle global du carbone implique la nécessité de raisonner en termes de bilan en considérant dans l’analyse tous les flux d’exportation et d’importation dans les écosystèmes. Littérature. Une synthèse bibliographique, basée sur les résultats publiés ou non de quelques études ayant porté sur les écosystèmes ouest-africains, a été conduite avec pour objectif principal d’évaluer l’importance des échanges de carbone avec l’atmosphère. Il ressort que les flux de carbone présentent une importante variabilité spatiale, principalement liée à la variabilité des conditions pédo-climatiques, des modes de gestion, des types de végétation et des formes d’usage des écosystèmes. La pluviométrie moyenne annuelle apparait être le facteur principal contrôlant les échanges de carbone dans la région. La variabilité spatiale de la photosynthèse explique 71 % de celle de cumuls annuels de NEE. Cet article confirme le comportement de puits de carbone de l’ensemble des écosystèmes terrestres ouest-africains considérés avec une séquestration moyenne annuelle de -2,0 ± 1,5 t C·ha-1 et fait apparaitre la nécessité d’améliorer la compréhension des mécanismes ou des facteurs qui contrôlent les échanges de carbone entre les écosystèmes et l’atmosphère. Conclusions. Considérant les résultats de quelques sites, il apparait nécessaire de poursuivre les mesures des flux de carbone à l’échelle de l’écosystème sur le long terme afin de mieux apprécier leurs variabilités spatio-temporelles, notamment saisonnières et inter-annuelles. Cet article met également en évidence la nécessité d’étendre les mesures d’eddy covariance dans la région et à d’autres types de végétation de manière à faciliter des études de comparaison entre différents types d’écosystème. Ces études permettront de suggérer des modes de gestion plus durables favorisant la séquestration de carbone tout en limitant les émissions., CO2 measurement and carbon sequestration in West African terrestrial ecosystems. A reviewIntroduction. In West Africa, as elsewhere in other parts of the world, preserving terrestrial ecosystems has proven essential to any emissions mitigation policy for greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide. A meaningful assessment of the contribution of a given region to the global carbon cycle implies the need to think in terms of balance, taking into account the totality of the carbon export and import within the ecosystems. Literature. This review, based on the results of a small number of published and unpublished studies focusing on West African ecosystems, has as its main objective the assessment of the importance of carbon exchange. Carbon fluxes appear to be spatially highly variable in the West African region, mainly due to the variability of the types of vegetation, approaches to ecosystem management, and edaphic and climatic conditions. The mean annual precipitation appears to be the main factor controlling plant respiration and photosynthesis in this region. Annual cumulated NEE has been positively correlated with the rate of photosynthesis, and has been shown to account for 71% of its spatial variability at the annual scale. This paper also confirms the presence of carbon sink behavior for considered ecosystems in the West Africa with an annual average carbon sequestration of -2.0 ± 1.5 t C·ha-1 and highlights the need to improve understanding of factors or mechanisms controlling the carbon exchange between the ecosystems and the atmosphere. Conclusions. Based on these results, which were collected on a very limited number of sites, it appears necessary to continue with the measurement of carbon fluxes in the long term at the ecosystem scale in order to better appreciate the temporal and spatial variabilities, especially on a seasonal and inter-annual basis. This paper highlights the need to extend eddy covariance measurements to other vegetation types in this region in order to facilitate studies comparing the different ecosystems. This could be used as a basis for the recommendation of more sustainable management strategies favoring carbon sequestration while limiting emission levels.

CO2 flux measurement and carbon balance of agricultural crops. The increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) atmospheric concentration, which is a greenhouse gas, put in stress the need of a better understanding of the carbon cycle and its dynamic. In particular, the exchanges between ecosystems and atmosphere are characterized by large uncertainties. Regional networks were set up to study these CO2 fluxes. In Europe, the CarboEurope-IP network studies the exchanges between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. It includes more than 100 sites of forests, croplands or grasslands. This article presents the project " CO2 flux measurement and carbon balance of agricultural crops " which was developed in this frame. The main aim of this project is to quantify the CO2 flux evolution of Belgian crops and understand its response to biotic and abiotic factors. In order to meet this goal, measurements are carried out at different spatial and temporal scales. Net ecosystem exchange measurements are carried out every half-hour at the parcel scale. Soil respiration is measured at the soil plot scale with the same frequency. At the leaf scale, net assimilation measurements are performed once a week. Moreover, plant samplings are carried out to determine the crop carbon content. After presenting the objectives of the project, this paper presents the measurement techniques and the fluxes they allow obtaining. The procedures used to combine the measurements in order to assess a complete crop carbon balance are also detailed.

Turbulent CO2 exchanges between a cultivated Sudanian savanna and the atmosphere were measured during 29 months (August 2007-December 2009) by an eddy-covariance system in North-Western Benin, West Africa. The site (Lat 9.74 degrees N, Long 1.60 degrees E, Alt: 449 m) is the one of three sites fitted out by the international AMMA-CATCH program. The flux station footprint area is mainly composed of herbs and crops with some sparse trees and shrubs. Fluxes data were completed by an inventory of dominating species around the tower and the meteorological measurements. Flux response to climatic and edaphic factors was studied. Water was found the main controlling factor of ecosystem dynamics: much larger uptake was found in wet than dry season. During wet season, a very clear answer of net CO2 fluxes to photosynthetic photon fluxes density (PPFD) was observed. A low limitation in response to saturation deficit and soil water variability was however observed. The total ecosystem respiration (TER) was found highly dependent on soil moisture below 0.1 m(3) m(-3), but saturates above this threshold. The average annual carbon sequestration was 232 +/- 27 gC m(-2) with its inter-annual variability mainly controlled by TER. Finally, the ecosystem appeared more efficient during morning and wet season than during afternoon and dry period.

Drought is typically associated with a lack of precipitation, whereas the contribution of evapotranspiration and runoff to drought evolution is not well understood. Here we use unique long-term observations made in four headwater catchments in central and western Europe to reconstruct storage anomalies and study the drivers of storage anomaly evolution during drought. We provide observational evidence for the “drought-paradox” in that region: a consistent and significant increase in evapotranspiration during drought episodes, which acts to amplify the storage anomalies. In contrast, decreases in runoff act to limit storage anomalies. Our findings stress the need for the correct representation of evapotranspiration and runoff processes in drought indices.

Data sets of biometeorological measurements of ecosystem CO(2) flux, combined with harvest and manure data from several European cropland were integrated to provide an assessment of the carbon budget. Sites encompassed different climatic regions and contrasting crop rotations. The influence of different crops and management practices was also assessed to identify some of the major factors contributing to the cropland carbon balance. Since crops are rotated and cropping periods do not always follow the calendar year, net ecosystem production (NEP) as well as net biome production (NBP) sums of full crop rotations or of at least 4 years of longer-term crop rotations and of monocultures were used. In a second analysis NBP sums were correlated to soil properties. Finally, the data were combined with additional data to derive a mean annual GHG balance for the European cropland sites under consideration. Five crop rotations and two monocultures were integrated over 4 years. During 4 years the average annual NEP was -240 +/- 113 g C m(-2) y(-1). On average, 382 +/- 117 gC m(-2) y(-1) were harvested, where as average carbon inputs by manure and seeding was 47 +/- 51 g C m(-2) y(-1). The average NBP of the seven sites under consideration was estimated to be a carbon loss of 95 +/- 87 gC m(-2) y(-1). The full GHG balance of the considered sites was estimated to be 160 g C m(-2) y(-1) in CO(2)-equivalents. These results challenge current good practice guidelines that predict neutral carbon budgets for systems where the inputs of manure and crop residues are of comparable magnitude to those associated with the sites examined in this study. Ongoing humus loss in spite of good practice is mainly related to soils with high carbon concentrations which are not in equilibrium but may also be a result of already ongoing climate change. A modification in the good practice guidelines to increase carbon inputs may be required. Results from a representativeness analysis suggest that more than 50 sites are necessary for a European cropland flux network to adequately represent the variability of climate, soil and management within the European continent. Thus, the uncertainties due to the network design are currently bigger than the uncertainty intrinsic in the measurement method.

Data sets of biometeorological measurements of ecosystem CO2 flux, combined with harvest and manure data from several European cropland sites encompassing different climatic regions and contrasting crop rotations were integrated to provide an assessment of the carbon budget. The influence of different crops and management practices was also assessed to identify some of the major factors contributing to the cropland carbon balance. In a first analysis, it was shown that NEE mainly correlated with length of the cropping period. In a second analysis NBP sums were correlated to soil properties. Finally, the data were combined with additional data to derive a mean annual GHG balance for the European cropland sites under consideration. Five crop rotations and two monocultures were integrated over 4 years. During 4 years the average annual NEP was -240 ± 178 g C m-2 y-1. On average, 382 ± 185 g C m-2 y-1 were harvested, while average carbon inputs by manure and seeding was 47 ± 50 g C m-2 y-1. The average NBP of the seven sites under consideration was estimated to be a carbon loss of 95 ± 203 g C m-2 y-1. The full GHG balance of the considered sites was estimated to be 160 g C m-2 y-1 in CO2-equivalents These results challenge current good practice guidelines that predict neutral carbon budgets for systems where the inputs of manure and crop residues are of comparable magnitude to those associated with the sites examined in this study. Ongoing humus loss in spite of good practice is mainly related to soils with high carbon concentrations which are not in equilibrium but may also be a result of already ongoing climate change. A modification in the good practice guidelines to increase carbon inputs may be required. Uncertainty and the representativeness of the results are discussed. Results from a representativeness analysis suggest that more than 50 sites are necessary for a European cropland flux network to adequately represent the variability of climate, soil and management within the European continent. Thus, the uncertainties due to the network design are currently bigger than the uncertainty intrinsic in the measurement method.

Crop rotations are important elements of agricultural management in many regions of Europe. Since the different crops result in different carbon input into the soils, a realistic carbon balance for agricultural ecosystems under crop rotation can only be derived when a full rotation is considered. For the first time, the CarboEurope cropland focus can provide ecosystem flux data from several cropland sites in different climatic regions of Europe covering full crop rotations and compare them to sites with continuous monoculture. Full crop rotation balances of carbon exchange between the considered field sites and the atmosphere were derived and supplemented with yield data in order to calculate net biome production. From these data, we derived mean annual values of net ecosystem exchange, gross primary production, ecosystem respiration and net biome production. The results show that most agricultural ecosystems in Europe still loose carbon.

International audience; Water-use efficiency (WUE) has been recognized as an important characteristic of vegetation productivity in various natural scientific disciplines for decades, but only recently at the ecosystem level, where different ways exist to characterize water-use efficiency. 5 Hence, the objective of this research was (a) to systematically compare different ways of calculating ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUEe) from eddy-covariance measurements, (b) quantify the diurnal, seasonal and interannual variability of WUEe in relation to meteorological conditions, and (c) analyse between-site variability of WUEe as affected by vegetation type and climatic conditions, across sites in European forest 10 ecosystems. Day-to-day variability of gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) were more strongly coupled than net ecosystem production (NEP) and ET, obviously because NEP also depends on the respiration that is not heavily coupled to water fluxes. However, the slope of daytime NEP versus ET (mNEP) from half-hourly 15 measurements of a single day may also be used as a WUEe-estimate giving very similar results to those of the GPP-ET slope (mGPP), since the diurnal variation is dominated by GPP. Since ET is the sum of transpiration (linked to GPP) and evaporation from wet vegetation and soil surfaces (not linked to GPP) we expected that WUEe is increasing when days after rain are excluded from the analysis. However only very 20 minor changes were found, justifying an analysis of WUEe related to vegetation type. In most of the studied ecosystems the instantaneous WUEGPP was quite sensitive to diurnally varying meteorological conditions and tended to decline from the morning to the afternoon by more than 50% because of increasing vapour pressure deficits (VPD). Seasonally, WUEGPP increased with a rising monthly precipitation sum and rising 25 average monthly temperatures up to a threshold of 11, 14 and 18°C in boreal, temperate and Mediterranean ecosystems, respectively. Across all sites, the highest monthly WUEGPP-values were detected at times of positive anomalies of summer-precipitation. During drought periods with high temperatures, high VPD, little precipitation and low 4483 BGD 5, 4481–4519, 2008 Characterisation of ecosystem water-use efficiency F. G. Kuglitsch et al. Title Page Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures J I J I Back Close Full Screen / Esc Printer-friendly Version Interactive Discussion soil water content, the water-use efficiency of gross carbon uptake (WUEGPP) tended to decrease in all forest types because of a stronger decline of GPP compared to ET. However the largest variation of growing season WUEGPP was found betweensites and significantly related to vegetation type: WUEGPP was highest in ecosystems dominated by deciduous trees ranging from 5.0 gCO2 kgH2O−1 5 for temperate broadleaved deciduous forests (TD), to 4.5 for temperate mixed forests (TM), 3.5 for temperate evergreen conifers (TC), 3.4 for Mediterranean broad-leaved deciduous forests (MD), 3.3 for Mediterranean broad-leaved evergreen forests (Mbeg), 3.1 for Mediterranean evergreen conifers (MC), 2.9 for boreal evergreen conifers (BC) and only 1.2 g 10 CO2 kg H2O−1 for a boreal wetland site (BT). Although vegetation type and meteorology co-vary, the WUEGPP variation was hardly related to meteorology, as we could show by comparing similar meteorological conditions only. Furthermore we compared across-site WUEGPP only under conditions when the 10% high GPP rates were exhibited. The between site differences remained, and at all sites ecosystem reached higher 15 WUEGPP levels under this condition. This means when vegetation is most productive usually it also maximises the amount of carbon gained per water lost. Overall our results show that water-use efficiency exhibits a strong time-scale dependency in the sense that at longer time-scale meteorological conditions play a smaller role compared to shorter time scale. Moreover, we highlight the role of vegetation in 20 determining carbon-water relation at ecosystem level. Consequently, all predictions of changing carbon-water cycle under changing climate should take into this role and the differences between vegetation types. These results show the strong time-scale dependency of water-use efficiency

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 CO2balances 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 CO2balance required the introduction of substantial biome-specific closure terms. Nonclosure was taken as an indication that respiratory processes, advection, and non-CO2carbon fluxes are not presently being adequately accounted for. © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

International audience; We applied a site evaluation approach combining Lagrangian Stochastic footprint modelling with a quality assessment approach for eddy-covariance data to 25 forested sites of the CarboEurope-IP network. The analysis addresses the spatial representativeness of the flux measurements, instrumental effects on data quality, spatial patterns in the data quality, and the performance of the coordinate rotation method. Our findings demonstrate that application of a footprint filter could strengthen the CarboEurope-IP flux database, since only one third of the sites is situated in truly homogeneous terrain. Almost half of the sites experience a significant reduction in eddy-covariance data quality under certain conditions, though these effects are mostly constricted to a small portion of the dataset. Reductions in data quality of the sensible heat flux are mostly induced by characteristics of the surrounding terrain, while the latent heat flux is subject to instrumentation-related problems. The Planar-Fit coordinate rotation proved to be a reliable tool for the majority of the sites using only a single set of rotation angles. Overall, we found a high average data quality for the CarboEurope-IP network, with good representativeness of the measurement data for the specified target land cover types.

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.

International audience

International audience; Eddy covariance technique to measure CO2, water and energy fluxes between biosphere and atmosphere is widely spread and used in various regional networks. Currently more that 250 eddy covariance sites are active around the world measuring carbon exchange at high temporal resolution for different biomes and climatic conditions. These data are usually acquired using the same method but they need a set of corrections that are often differently applied to each site and in a subjective way. In this paper a new standardized set of corrections are proposed and the uncertainties introduced by these corrections are assessed for 8 different forest sites in Europe with a total of 12 yearly datasets. The uncertainties introduced on the two components GPP (Gross Primary Production) and TER (Terrestrial Ecosystem Respiration) are also discussed and a quantitative analysis presented . The results show that a standardized data processing is needed for an effective comparison across biomes and for underpinning inter-annual variability. The methodology presented in this paper has also been integrated in the European database of the eddy covariance measurements.

International audience; Agricultural crops play a significant role in the diurnal and seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO2 over the growing season. The evolution of CO2 flux over space and time for various crops need to be determined for establishing any (mid-)continental atmospheric CO2 budget as it is intended to be done in the North American Carbon Program. Flux towers and the ancillary measurements are critical for regional analysis and understanding of dynamics of CO2 and energy exchange. They provide ground-truth data for remote sensing observations, information for verifying process-based models and for interpreting aircraft and tall tower concentration measurements. Several instrumented towers are monitoring CO2 and energy fluxes from agricultural crops such as corn, wheat, soybean, sugar beet, rape seed, and rice paddies for various locations through networks such as Ameriflux, CarboEurope, and Japanflux. Our objectives are (i) to prepare an exhaustive inventory of the eddy flux measurements carried out (past and present) reporting the crop types, agro-climatic conditions, soil type and slope, management practices and type of measurements (fluxes and the so-called ancillary ones) along with any relevant methodological problems encountered in flux measurements above short canopy crop and (ii) to compare different temporal series (30-min, daily, 10 days) of flux measurements acquired through the growing season in order to stress the commonalities and the differences in the functional response of the various crops in relation to climate, and management practices.

National audience; Dans les forêts, la respiration du sol (Rs) est le deuxième flux de CO2 en importance après la photosynthèse. Pourtant les relations permettant d'estimer Rs contiennent des paramètres dont la valeur est très dépendante du site. Il est donc actuellement difficile de simuler Rs au sein des modèles de couvert forestier sans avoir effectuer certaines campagnes de mesures de ce flux. Cela implique une imprécision lors de l'extrapolation de ces modèles hors des parcelles de mesures. Afin d'essayer de remédier à ce problème, une base de données comprenant des mesures météorologiques (température de l'air, température et contenu en eau de sol,...), des propriétés de l'écosystème (LAI, surface terrière, pH H2O du sol, contenu en carbone et en azote du sol, ...) et l'évolution saisonnière de Rs a été établie pour plusieurs parcelles forestières en France et en Belgique. L'ajustement d'une relation permettant de décrire l'influence des variables météorologiques sur Rs a été réalisé pour chaque parcelle et des valeurs de paramètres ont été obtenues également pour chaque parcelle. Ces valeurs de paramètres ont été comparées entre elles afin de tenter d'établir des dépendances vis à vis des propriétés de l'écosystème. Ce travail a nécessité la mise au point d'un protocole de mesures commun aux différentes équipes impliquées. Entre autre, les différents systèmes de mesure de Rs (PP system EGM-4, analyseur Licor 6250 + chambre Licor 6000-9 ou faite) ont été comparés et des procédures de corrections ont été établies afin d'assurer l'homogénéité des données de Rs.

International audience

International audience

International audience

International audience

In addition to being scientifically exciting, commercially important, and environmentally essential, temperate forests have also become a key diplomatic item in international climate negotiations as potential sinks for carbon. This review presents the methods used to estimate carbon sequestration, identifies the constraints and opportunities for carbon sequestration in temperate forests, addresses the issues raised by the monitoring of carbon sequestration, and analyzes uncertainties pertaining to the sequestration of carbon by temperate forests. This review serves a dual purpose: It aims at informing policy makers about carbon sequestration in temperate forests and at making forest ecologists, biogeochemists, and atmospheric scientists aware of the structure of an international agreement to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions and some of the real, still answered scientific questions that it poses.

This paper responds to the Forum contribution by Piovesan & Adams (2000) who criticized the results obtained by the EUROFLUX network on carbon fluxes of several European forests. The major point of criticism was that the data provided by EUROFLUX are inconsistent with current scientific understanding. It is argued that understanding the terrestrial global carbon cycle requires more than simply restating what was known previously, and that Piovesan & Adams have not been able to show any major conflicts between our findings and ecosystem or atmospheric-transport theories.

A closed-dynamic-chamber system (CDCS) was used to measure the spatial and seasonal variability of the soil CO2 efflux (Fs) in beech and in Douglas fir patches of the Vielsalm forest (Belgium). First the difference between natural and measured soil CO2 efflux induced by the presence of the CDCS was studied. The impact on the measurements of the pressure difference between the outside (natural condition) and the inside of the chamber was found to be small (0.4%). The influence of wind disturbance in the closed chamber was tested by comparison with an open-chamber system characterized by a different wind distribution. A very good correlation between the two systems was found (r 2 = 0.99) but the open system yielded slightly lower fluxes than the closed one (slope = 0.88±0.05). A measurement procedure has been developed to minimize the effect of the other sources of perturbation. The spatial and seasonal evolution of the soil CO2 efflux was obtained by performing regular measurements on 29 spots in the beech patch over a period of 12months and on 24 spots in the Douglas fir patch over 8 months. For each spot, the experimental relationship between Fs and soil temperature was compared with the fitted line for an Arrhenius relationship with a soil temperature-dependent activation energy. Soil temperature explains 73% of the seasonal variation for all the data. The spatial average of the soil CO2 efflux at 10 °C(Fs10) in the beech patch is 2.57 ± 0.41 µmol m-2 s-1, approximately twice the average in the Douglas fir patch recorded at 1.42±0.22 µmol m-2 s-1. The litter fall analysis seems to indicate that soil organic matter quality and quantity may be one the reasons for this difference. Finally the annual soil CO2 efflux was calculated for the beech and Douglas fir patches (870±140 and 438±68 gCm-2 y-1 , respectively). The beech value would represent 92±15% of the annual ecosystem respiration estimated from the eddy covariance measurements.

International audience

International audience

The impact of atmospheric reactive nitrogen (N$_{r}$) deposition on carbon (C) sequestration in soils and biomass of unfertilized, natural, semi-natural and forest ecosystems has been much debated. Many previous results of this dC/dN response were based on changes in carbon stocks from periodical soil and ecosystem inventories, associated with estimates of N$_{r}$ deposition obtained from large-scale chemical transport models. This study and a companion paper (Flechard et al., 2020) strive to reduce uncertainties of N effects on C sequestration by linking multi-annual gross and net ecosystem productivity estimates from 40 eddy covariance flux towers across Europe to local measurement-based estimates of dry and wet N$_{r}$ deposition from a dedicated collocated monitoring network. To identify possible ecological drivers and processes affecting the interplay between C and N$_{r}$ inputs and losses, these data were also combined with in situ flux measurements of NO, N$_{2}$O and CH$_{4}$ fluxes; soil NO$_{3}$̅ leaching sampling; and results of soil incubation experiments for N and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as surveys of available data from online databases and from the literature, together with forest ecosystem (BASFOR) modelling. Multi-year averages of net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in forests ranged from -70 to 826 gCm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$ at total wet+dry inorganic N$_{r}$ deposition rates (N$_{dep}$) of 0.3 to 4.3 gNm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$ and from -4 to 361 g Cm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$ at N$_{dep}$ rates of 0.1 to 3.1 gNm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$ in short semi-natural vegetation (moorlands, wetlands and unfertilized extensively managed grasslands). The GHG budgets of the forests were strongly dominated by CO$_{2}$ exchange, while CH$_{4}$ and N$_{2}$O exchange comprised a larger proportion of the GHG balance in short semi-natural vegetation. Uncertainties in elemental budgets were much larger for nitrogen than carbon, especially at sites with elevated N$_{dep}$ where N$_{r}$ leaching losses were also very large, and compounded by the lack of reliable data on organic nitrogen and N$_{2}$ losses by denitrification. Nitrogen losses in the form of NO, N$_{2}$O and especially NO$_{3}$̅ were on average 27%(range 6 %–54 %) of N$_{dep}$ at sites with N$_{dep}$ < 1 gNm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$ versus 65% (range 35 %–85 %) for N$_{dep}$ > 3 gNm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$. Such large levels of N$_{r}$ loss likely indicate that different stages of N saturation occurred at a number of sites. The joint analysis of the C and N budgets provided further hints that N saturation could be detected in altered patterns of forest growth. Net ecosystem productivity increased with N$_{r}$ deposition up to 2–2.5 gNm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$, with large scatter associated with a wide range in carbon sequestration efficiency (CSE, defined as the NEP = GPP ratio). At elevated N$_{dep}$ levels (> 2.5 gNm$^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$), where inorganic N$_{r}$ losses were also increasingly large, NEP levelled off and then decreased. The apparent increase in NEP at low to intermediate N$_{dep}$ levels was partly the result of geographical cross-correlations between N$_{dep}$ and climate, indicating that the actual mean dC/dN response at individual sites was significantly lower than would be suggested by a simple, straightforward regression of NEP vs. N$_{dep}$.