Measuring Oxygen to Unravel the Forest Carbon Balance
Photosynthesis and respiration of CO, by forests are two major unknowns in the global carbon cycle. They are the two largest and most variable fluxes, and their difference currently acts as a global net sink. With this project (2017-2020) we aim to provide new insights in the forest carbon balance by separately quantifying photosynthesis and respiration using atmospheric measurements. The method is based on the inverse relationship between oxygen (O,) and CO, which is different for photosynthesis and respiration (e.g. lshidoya et al., 2015).