PNNL

Abstract

Field-measured soil respiration (RS, the soil-to-atmosphere CO2 flux) observations were compiled into a global soil respiration database (SRDB) a decade ago, a resource that has been widely used by the biogeochemistry community to advance our understanding of RS dynamics. Novel carbon cycle sciences questions require updated and augmented global information with better interoperability among datasets. Here, we restructured and updated the global RS database to version SRDB-V5. The updated version has all previous fields revised for consistency and simplicity, and it has several new fields to include ancillary information (e.g., RS measurement time, collar insertion depth, collar area). The new SRDB-V5 includes published papers through 2017 (800 separate studies) where total observations increased from 6633 in SRDB-V4 to 10366 in SRDB-V5. The SRDB-V5 features more RS data published in Russian and Chinese scientific literature, has an improved global spatio-temporal coverage, and improved global climate-space representation. We also restructured the database so that it has stronger interoperability with other datasets related to carbon-cycle science. For instance, linking SRDB-V5 with an hourly timescale global soil respiration database (HGRsD) and an? ?open? ?community? ?database? ?for? ?continuous? ?soil? ?respiration? ?and? ?other? ?chamber? ?flux? ?data? (COSORE) enables researchers to explore new questions. The updated SRDB-V5 aims to be a data framework for the scientific community to share seasonal to annual field RS measurements, and it provides opportunities for the biogeochemistry community to better understand the spatial and temporal variability of RS, its components, and ecosystem carbon cycles more generally.