Abstract

MORENO, Hernán Alonso. ANNUAL AND DIURNAL CYCLES OF THE INVERSE RELATION BETWEEN PLANT TRANSPIRATION AND CARBON SEQUESTRATION. Rev.EIA.Esc.Ing.Antioq [online]. 2008, n.9, pp.53-68. ISSN 1794-1237.

Understanding biogeochemical cycles and especially carbon budgets is clue to validate global change models in the present and near future. As a consequence, sinks and sources of carbon in the world are being studied. One of those sinks is the non-well known behavior of the planet vegetation which involves the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Carbon sequestration rates are highly related to the transpiration through a molecular diffusion process occurring at the stomatal level which can be recorded by an eddy covariance micrometeorological station. This paper explores annual and diurnal cycles of latent heat (LE) and CO₂ net (FC) fluxes over 6 different ecosystems. Based on the physics of the transpiration process, different time-scale analysis are performed, finding a near-linear relation between LE and CO₂ net fluxes, which is stronger at the more vegetated areas. The North American monsoon season increases carbon up taking and LE-CO₂ flux relation preserves at different time scales analysis (hours to days to months).

Keywords : carbon sequestration; evapotranspiration; net exchange of CO₂; eddy covariance; latent heat flux; diurnal cycle; annual cycle; Southwestern North America.

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