Impact of different eddy covariance sensors, site set-up, and maintenance on the annual balance of CO2 and CH4 in the harsh Arctic environment

• Published in: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• Main Authors: Goodrich, J.P., Oechel, W.C., Gioli, B., Moreaux, Virginie, Murphy, P.C., Burba, G., Zona, D.
• Other Authors: San Diego State University (SDSU), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Roma (CNR), Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières devient SILVA en 2018 (EEF), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Lorraine (UL), LI-COR Biosciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Arctic; north slope; Alaska
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01379666; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.07.008

Improving year-round data coverage for CO2 and CH4 fluxes in the Arctic is critical for refining the global C budget but continuous measurements are very sparse due to the remote location limiting instrument maintenance, to low power availability, and to extreme weather conditions. The need for tailoring instrumentation, site set up, and maintenance at different sites can add uncertainty to estimates of annual C budgets from different ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the influence of different sensor combinations on fluxes of sensible heat, CO2, latent heat (LE), and CH4, and assessed the differences in annual CO2 and CH4 fluxes estimated with different instrumentation at the same sites. Using data from four sites across the North Slope of Alaska, we found that annual CO2 fluxes estimated with heated (7.5 +/- 1.4 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) and non-heated (7.9 +/- 1.3 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) anemometers were within uncertainty bounds. Similarly, despite elevated noise in 30-min flux data, we found that summer CO2 fluxes from open (-17.0 +/- 1.1 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) and close-path (-14.2 +/- 1.7 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) gas analyzers were not significantly different. Annual CH4 fluxes were also within uncertainty bounds when comparing both open (4.5 +/- 0.31 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) and closed-path (4.9 +/- 0.27 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) gas analyzers as well as heated (3.7 +/- 0.26 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) and non-heated (3.7 +/- 0.28 gC m(-2) yr(-1)) anemometers. A continuously heated anemometer increased data coverage (64%) relative to non-heated anemometers (47-52%). However, sensible heat fluxes were over-estimated by 12%, on average, with the heated anemometer, contributing to the overestimation of CO2, CH4, and LE fluxes (mean biases of 0.03 mu mol m(-2) s(-1), 0.05 mgC m(-2) h(-1), and 3.77 W m(-2), respectively). To circumvent this potential bias and reduce power consumption, we implemented an intermittent heating strategy whereby activation only occurred when ice or snow blockage of the transducers, was detected. This resulted in comparable ...