ANNUAL CO_2 FLUXES ABOVE A SAGEBRUSH-STEPPE ECOSYSTEM IN EASTERN IDAHO

摘要

Because climatic conditions vary considerably in semiarid environments, it is not surprising that the magnitudes and dynamics of CO_2 fluxes also varied markedly among years at our sagebrush-steppe study site. Despite this large variability in annual fluxes, our results suggested that our sagebrush-steppe study site was a sink for carbon during all five years of our study, Our results further suggest that sagebrush-steppe ecosystems could sequester an average of about 38 Mt carbon per year, which is about 2-3% of the missing sink for global carbon.