Characteristics of free air carbon dioxide enrichment of a northern temperate mature forest

In 2017, the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) began to conduct Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) within a mature broadleaf deciduous forest situated in the United Kingdom. BIFoR FACE employs large‐scale infrastructure, in the form of lattice towers, forming ‘arrays’ which enci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global change biology 2020-02, Vol.26 (2), p.1023-1037
Main Authors: Hart, Kris M., Curioni, Giulio, Blaen, Phillip, Harper, Nicholas J., Miles, Peter, Lewin, Keith F., Nagy, John, Bannister, Edward J., Cai, Xiaoming M., Thomas, Rick M., Krause, Stefan, Tausz, Michael, MacKenzie, A. Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air
Arrays
Carbon Dioxide
Contamination
Control
deciduous
Deciduous forests
Diameters
elevated carbon dioxide
Enrichment
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
FACE
Forestry research
Forests
Infrastructure
oak
Plant cover
Plant Leaves
Quercus robur
Seasons
Technical Advance
United Kingdom
Weather
Wind speed
Woodland
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Summary:In 2017, the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) began to conduct Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) within a mature broadleaf deciduous forest situated in the United Kingdom. BIFoR FACE employs large‐scale infrastructure, in the form of lattice towers, forming ‘arrays’ which encircle a forest plot of ~30 m diameter. BIFoR FACE consists of three treatment arrays to elevate local CO2 concentrations (e[CO2]) by +150 µmol/mol. In practice, acceptable operational enrichment (ambient [CO2] + e[CO2]) is ±20% of the set point 1‐min average target. There are a further three arrays that replicate the infrastructure and deliver ambient air as paired controls for the treatment arrays. For the first growing season with e[CO2] (April to November 2017), [CO2] measurements in treatment and control arrays show that the target concentration was successfully delivered, that is: +147 ± 21 µmol/mol (mean ± SD) or 98 ± 14% of set point enrichment target. e[CO2] treatment was accomplished for 97.7% of the scheduled operation time, with the remaining time lost due to engineering faults (0.6% of the time), CO2 supply issues (0.6%) or adverse weather conditions (1.1%). CO2 demand in the facility was driven predominantly by wind speed and the formation of the deciduous canopy. Deviations greater than 10% from the ambient baseline CO2 occurred 80 µmol/mol (i.e. >53% of the treatment increment) into control arrays accounted for
ISSN:1354-1013
1365-2486
DOI:10.1111/gcb.14786