Monitoring of CO2 Emission in a Black Spruce Forest, Alaska

Researcher: Yongwon Kim
Funding Source: NSF
Collaborators: Dr. Kim (National Choongnam University, Korea) and his MS student; Dr. Kodama (Hokkaido University, Japan) and his MS student; Dr. Ishikawa (Hokkaido University, Japan) and his MS student

The goals are 1) to evaluate soil respiration and stem respiration using the automated CO₂ flux-measurement system, and 2) to better understand the contribution of soil- and stem-origin for the carbon budget in a typical black spruce forest in Alaska.

The project is to conduct continuous monitoring of CO₂ flux-measurement in a typical forest in Alaska. Soil respiration has been observed in lichen, feather/sphagnum mosses, and tussock tundra soils, and stem respiration in young (50-year-old) to old (150-year-old) black spruce.

The expected results are evaluations of 1) the effect on respiration of the cool and wet summer of 2008, and 2) the remarkable differences of stem respiration by age.

The continuous CO₂ flux-monitoring will provide the modelers on ecosystem carbon with integration and synthesis on the carbon cycle/budget in the Arctic.