Accounting for soil respiration variability - Case study in a Mediterranean pine-dominated forest.

ABSTRACT: The number of spots to monitor to evaluate soil respiration (R_s) is often chosen on an empirical or conventional basis. To obtain an insight into the necessary number of spots to account for R_s variability in a Mediterranean pine-dominated mixed forest, we measured R_s all year long on sixteen dates with a portable gas-analyser in 50 spots per date within an area 1/3 ha wide. Linear mixed-effects models with soil temperature and litter moisture as descriptors, were fitted to the collected data and then evaluated in a Monte Carlo simulation on a progressively decreasing number of spots to identify the minimum number required to estimate R_s with a given confidence interval. We found that monitoring less than 14 spots would have resulted in a 10% pro

SUBMITTER: Pantani OL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7000697 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature