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One of our primary research goals is to assess how diel temperature range influences photosynthesis, respiration, and the balance of these two fluxes.
Working as a large cuvette, the terracosms allow hourly measurement of net CO2 exchange rate (CER), the combined flux of carbon assimilation through photosynthesis (A), and carbon efflux (E).
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Automated soil efflux chambers help us to further break down the components of CER into aboveground and belowground fluxes.
Respiration is a highly temperature sensitive process. Our around-the-clock soil efflux data is great for examining how temperature regimes with the same daily mean, but different daily ranges, influence respiration.
The soil under the efflux chambers gets irrigation too! |
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Calibrating our automated soil efflux system against the Licor 6400
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Having complete control over all environmental parameters lets us do tests rarely performed at an ecosystem scale, like whole ecosystem temperature response curves.
In a short-term experiment, we ramped up temperature from 15 to 35 degrees C under a mid-day sky with light saturating conditions (PAR>1200), to determine the temperature optimum for whole ecosystem carbon uptake.
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