Navigation auf zora.uzh.ch

Search ZORA

ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive)

Migration von ZORA auf die Software DSpace

ZORA will change to a new software on 8th September 2025. Please note: deadline for new submissions is 21th July 2025!

Information & dates for training courses can be found here: Information on Software Migration.

How far do experimentally elevated CO2 levels reach into the surrounding?: an example using the13C label of soil organic matter as an archive

Heim, A; Moser, N; Blum, H; Schmidt, M W I (2009). How far do experimentally elevated CO2 levels reach into the surrounding?: an example using the13C label of soil organic matter as an archive. Global Change Biology, 15(6):1598-1602.

Abstract

During the last two decades, free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) studies have been conducted to study the effects of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations on ecosystems.
The distances between fumigated and control plots differ widely among those projects, but no experimental data are available how far into the surrounding area an effect of CO2
fumigation can be detected. As the CO2 gas added to the fumigated plots has a different 13C label than ambient atmospheric CO2, its carbon can be traced into plants and soil organic matter (SOM). The Swiss FACE in Eschikon had been conducted for 10 years on a grassland site. After it had ended, we analysed soil samples from three transects
extending from the plots to the surrounding area for their organic carbon (Corg) content and carbon isotopic signature. We determined the maximum spatial extension to which carbon originating from the fumigation was incorporated into SOM. A budget of the fumigation gas-derived Corg in the upper 10 cm of the soil showed that approximately 50 kg C were stored within the plots, and an additional 31 kg C were stored in their immediate surroundings up to a distance of 9m from the gas pipes. The presented approach provides us with a method to determine a posteriori the extension to which the CO2 fumigation treatment contaminated its immediate surroundings during a FACE experiment. In the presented example, this showed that the distances between plots could have been reduced significantly. Although not generalizable to other experimental settings, the finding indicates that optimizing the spatial layout, e.g. by modelling gas
dispersion, will be useful when planning future large-scale FACE infrastructures. Our approach provides a solid basis to test such gas-dispersion models on existing FACE sites
before planning new sites.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:07 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography
Dewey Decimal Classification:910 Geography & travel
Scopus Subject Areas:Physical Sciences > Global and Planetary Change
Physical Sciences > Environmental Chemistry
Physical Sciences > Ecology
Physical Sciences > General Environmental Science
Language:English
Date:2009
Deposited On:27 Nov 2009 07:29
Last Modified:08 Jul 2025 03:33
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN:1354-1013
OA Status:Closed
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01843.x

Metadata Export

Statistics

Citations

Dimensions.ai Metrics
6 citations in Web of Science®
7 citations in Scopus®
Google Scholar™

Altmetrics

Downloads

1 download since deposited on 27 Nov 2009
0 downloads since 12 months
Detailed statistics

Authors, Affiliations, Collaborations

Similar Publications