Search

Over the last 100 years a shifting human population has seen large proportions of people relocating from rural agricultural regions to urban and suburban areas. Extensive development within these modified lands has altered soils and natural vegetative cover which directly affects many biophysical processes. The current study examines over 4 years of continuous (i.e., hourly) CO2 measurements within a suburban forest floor and lawn to elucidate daily, seasonal and annual patterns of biogenic CO2 emissions while identifying the importance of forcing biophysical drivers (e.g., temperature, moisture). On an annual basis, the suburban forest floor and lawn emitted 587 ± 15.5 g C m−2 yr−1 and 1220 ± 31.5 g C m−2 yr−1, respectively. Overall, temperature was a primary driver of CO2 emissions within both forest and lawn, yet the forest was more complex with additional influence from tree canopy phenology and soil moisture. Diurnal CO2 emission patterns were different between land use types in their response to temperature as we found a counterclockwise hysteresis in forest and an in-sync response in the lawn. In all cases, the strength of biophysical drivers and observed CO2 emission rates were different depending on land use type and throughout the different seasons. Our findings provide insights for modeling and benchmarking biogenic CO2 dynamics across suburban ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]