The ORNL DAAC is pleased to announce the release of a new compilation of soil respiration data:
A Global Database of Soil Respiration Data, Version 3.0. Data set prepared by B.P. Bond-Lamberty and A.M. Thomson. This data set provides an update of the soil respiration database (SRDB), a near-universal compendium of published soil respiration (RS) data. Soil respiration, the flux of autotrophically- and heterotrophically-generated CO2 from the soil to the atmosphere, remains the least well-constrained component of the terrestrial Carbon cycle. The database encompasses all published studies that report at least one of the following data measured in the field (not laboratory): annual RS, mean seasonal RS, a seasonal or annual partitioning of RS into its sources fluxes, RS temperature response (Q10), or RS at 10 degrees C. The SRDB's orientation is thus to seasonal and annual fluxes, not shorter-term or chamber-specific measurements, and the database is dominated by temperate, well-drained forest measurement locations. The data set includes a file of RS data and a linked file of study bibliographic data; both files are in comma-separated format.
The compilers of the soil respiration database make it available to the scientific community both as a traditional static archive (ORNL DAAC) and as a dynamic community database that will be updated over time by interested users. The dynamic version of the database is hosted on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/srdb/. The ORNL DAAC will update the database on an ongoing basis to incorporate changes and additions submitted by the RS community via the Google Code site and by Bond-Lamberty and Thomson.
The ORNL DAAC is one of twelve NASA-funded Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and is responsible for archiving and distributing terrestrial ecology and biogeochemical dynamics data.