Correction to: Moving Beyond Global Warming Potentials to Quantify the Climatic Role of Ecosystems

In our 2015 paper, we dropped the e ( − dt / τ ) term from Equations (1) and (2) when an ecosystem removed CH 4 or N 2 O from the atmosphere, reasoning that greenhouse gases that are not in the atmosphere cannot undergo atmospheric oxidation or photolysis. The flaw in this logic is that the uptake o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecosystems (New York) 2019-12, Vol.22 (8), p.1931-1932
Main Authors: Neubauer, Scott C., Megonigal, J. Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Atmosphere
Atmospheric carbon dioxide
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate change
Correction
Decay
Decay rate
Ecology
Ecosystem assessment
Ecosystems
Environmental aspects
Environmental Management
Geoecology/Natural Processes
Global temperature changes
Global warming
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Hydrology/Water Resources
Life Sciences
Nitrous oxide
Oxidation
Photolysis
Plant Sciences
Zoology
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Summary:In our 2015 paper, we dropped the e ( − dt / τ ) term from Equations (1) and (2) when an ecosystem removed CH 4 or N 2 O from the atmosphere, reasoning that greenhouse gases that are not in the atmosphere cannot undergo atmospheric oxidation or photolysis. The flaw in this logic is that the uptake of greenhouse gases by an ecosystem has the effect of reducing the pool of bulk atmospheric greenhouse gases and, consequently, lowering the decay rate of those gases. This violates our implicit assumption that the pool of bulk atmospheric greenhouse gases is in steady state and not affected by the ecosystem. To account for this, the e ( − dt / τ ) term needs to remain in the model, with the result that the exact same equation is used when an ecosystem exhibits sustained greenhouse gas emissions or uptake. We thank Paavo Ojanen for bringing this error to our attention.
ISSN:1432-9840
1435-0629
DOI:10.1007/s10021-019-00422-5