학술논문

A widely-used eddy covariance gap-filling method creates systematic bias in carbon balance estimates.
Document Type
Article
Source
Scientific Reports. 2/24/2023, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p1-9. 9p.
Subject
*GREENHOUSE gas mitigation
*CARBON sequestration
*CLIMATE change mitigation
*CARBON cycle
*MARGINAL distributions
Language
ISSN
2045-2322
Abstract
Climate change mitigation requires, besides reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, actions to increase carbon sinks in terrestrial ecosystems. A key measurement method for quantifying such sinks and calibrating models is the eddy covariance technique, but it requires imputation, or gap-filling, of missing data for determination of annual carbon balances of ecosystems. Previous comparisons of gap-filling methods have concluded that commonly used methods, such as marginal distribution sampling (MDS), do not have a significant impact on the carbon balance estimate. By analyzing an extensive, global data set, we show that MDS causes significant carbon balance errors for northern (latitude > 60 ∘ ) sites. MDS systematically overestimates the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions of carbon sources and underestimates the CO 2 sequestration of carbon sinks. We also reveal reasons for these biases and show how a machine learning method called extreme gradient boosting or a modified implementation of MDS can be used to substantially reduce the northern site bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]