Short-term spatial and temporal variability in greenhouse gas fluxes in riparian zones

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Abstract

Recent research indicates that riparian zones have the potential to contribute significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG: N2O, CO2, CH4) to the atmosphere. Yet, the short-term spatial and temporal variability in GHG emission in these systems is poorly understood. Using two transects of three static chambers at two North Carolina agricultural riparian zones (one restored, one unrestored), we show that estimates of the average GHG flux at the site scale can vary by one order of magnitude depending on whether the mean or the median is used as a measure of central tendency. Because the median tends to mute the effect of outlier points (hot spots and hot moments), we propose that both must be reported or that other more advanced spatial averaging techniques (e.g., kriging, area-weighted average) should be used to estimate GHG fluxes at the site scale. Results also indicate that short-term temporal variability in GHG fluxes (a few days) under seemingly constant temperature and hydrological conditions can be as large as spatial variability at the site scale, suggesting that the scientific community should rethink sampling protocols for GHG at the soil-atmosphere interface to include repeated measures over short periods of time at select chambers to estimate GHG emissions in the field. Although recent advances in technology provide tools to address these challenges, their cost is often too high for widespread implementation. Until technology improves, sampling design strategies will need to be carefully considered to balance cost, time, and spatial and temporal representativeness of measurements.

Keywords

Repeated measures Measurement error Greenhouse gases Riparian zones Methods 

Abbreviations

GHG

Greenhouse gases

N2O

Nitrous oxide

CO2

Carbon dioxide

CH4

Methane

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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by USDA-AFRI grant # 2012-67019-30226 to PI McMillan and Vidon, while Molly Welsh’s work was partially supported by NSF GRFP # 1439650. The authors would like to thank the landowner of the study sites, Mr. Newman and the Surry County Soil and Water Conservation District, especially Mr. Goings, for granting us access to the sites for the duration of the study. Thanks are also due to Jordan Gross for help in the field and laboratory.

Compliance and ethical standards

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Funding

This work was funded by USDA-AFRI grant # 2012-67019-30226 to PI McMillan and Vidon, while Molly Welsh’s work was partially supported by NSF GRFP # 1439650.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.SUNY-ESFSyracuseUSA
  2. 2.Purdue UniversityWest LafayetteUSA

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