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Pooling of CO2 within a small valley in a tropical seasonal rain forest

  • Special Feature: Original article
  • CO2 flux observation in various forests of Monsoon-Asia
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Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

CO2 concentrations and related environmental factors were measured in an Asian tropical rainforest located in a small valley in Xishuangbanna, SW China, with the aim of investigating the CO2 pooling effect and its mechanism of formation. Pooling of CO2 was observed during the evening (1600–2200 hours local time); the accumulated CO2 subsequently flowed away after dusk. We consider that along-slope drainage flow, soil CO2 efflux, and temperature inversion contribute to the development of CO2 pooling. A new model is proposed to track the mechanism of the formation and dissipation of CO2 pooling (e.g., drainage flow, compensatory mechanisms). Given its influence on the storage term, we suggest that CO2 pooling and subsequent disappearance should be taken into account when calculating eddy covariance and other micrometeorological measurements of carbon flux for valley sites.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous reviewers who provided many useful suggestions and comments regarding the manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge the field crew for data collection. This work was financially supported by the State Key Basic Research Development Program (2010CB833501), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40571163 and 31061140359), and the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-Q1-05-04). The authors are grateful to the staff at the Xishuangbanna Station for Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We thank the GIS Laboratory of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden for providing a relief map of the area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 666303, Menglun, People’s Republic of China

    Yugang Yao, Yiping Zhang, Zhenghong Tan, Liqing Sha & Qinghai Song

  2. National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, 305-8506, Japan

    Naishen Liang

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100039, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Yugang Yao, Zhenghong Tan & Qinghai Song

  4. Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Guirui Yu

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  1. Yugang Yao
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Correspondence to Yiping Zhang.

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Yao, Y., Zhang, Y., Liang, N. et al. Pooling of CO2 within a small valley in a tropical seasonal rain forest. J For Res 17, 241–252 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-011-0268-3

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