[1] We upscaled FLUXNET observations of carbon dioxide, water, and energy fluxes to the global scale using the machine learning technique, model tree ensembles (MTE). We trained MTE to predict site-level gross primary productivity (GPP), terrestrial ecosystem respiration (TER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE), latent energy (LE), and sensible heat (H) based on remote sensing indices, climate and meteorological data, and information on land use. We applied the trained MTEs to generate global flux fields at a 0.5°× 0.5°spatial resolution and a monthly temporal resolution from 1982 to 2008. Cross-validation analyses revealed good performance of MTE in predicting among-site flux variability with modeling efficiencies (MEf) between 0.64 and 0.84, except for NEE (MEf = 0.32). Performance was also good for predicting seasonal patterns (MEf between 0.84 and 0.89, except for NEE (0.64)). By comparison, predictions of monthly anomalies were not as strong (MEf between 0.29 and 0.52). Improved accounting of disturbance and lagged environmental effects, along with improved characterization of errors in the training data set, would contribute most to further reducing uncertainties. Our global estimates of LE (158 ± 7 J × 10 18 yr −1 ), H (164 ± 15 J × 10 18 yr −1), and GPP (119 ± 6 Pg C yr ) were similar to independent estimates. Our global TER estimate (96 ± 6 Pg C yr −1 ) was likely underestimated by 5-10%. Hot spot regions of interannual variability in carbon fluxes occurred in semiarid to semihumid regions and were controlled by moisture supply. Overall, GPP was more important to interannual variability in NEE than TER. Our empirically derived fluxes may be used for calibration and evaluation of land surface process models and for exploratory and diagnostic assessments of the biosphere.

Abstract. Eddy covariance technique to measure CO 2 , water and energy fluxes between biosphere and atmosphere is widely spread and used in various regional networks. Currently more than 250 eddy covariance sites are active around the world measuring carbon exchange at high temporal resolution for different biomes and climatic conditions. In this paper a new standardized set of corrections is introduced and the uncertainties associated with these corrections are assessed for eight different forest sites in Europe with a total of 12 yearly datasets. The uncertainties introduced on the two components GPP (Gross Primary Production) and TER (Terrestrial Ecosystem Respiration) are also discussed and a quantitative analysis presented. Through a factorial analysis we find that generally, uncertainties by different corrections are additive without interactions and that the heuristic u * -correction introduces the largest uncertainty. The results show that a standardized data processing is needed for an effective comparison across biomes and for underpinning interannual variability. The methodology presented in this paper has also been integrated in the European database of the eddy covariance measurements.

Terrestrial ecosystems sequester 2.1 Pg of atmospheric carbon annually. A large amount of the terrestrial sink is realized by forests. However, considerable uncertainties remain regarding the fate of this carbon over both short and long timescales. Relevant data to address these uncertainties are being collected at many sites around the world, but syntheses of these data are still sparse. To facilitate future synthesis activities, we have assembled a comprehensive global database for forest ecosystems, which includes carbon budget variables (fluxes and stocks), ecosystem traits (e.g. leaf area index, age), as well as ancillary site information such as management regime, climate, and soil characteristics. This publicly available database can be used to quantify global, regional or biome-specific carbon budgets; to re-examine established relationships; to test emerging hypotheses about ecosystem functioning [e.g. a constant net ecosystem production (NEP) to gross primary production (GPP) ratio]; and as benchmarks for model evaluations. In this paper, we present the first analysis of this database. We discuss the climatic influences on GPP, net primary production (NPP) and NEP and present the CO 2 balances for boreal, temperate, and tropical forest biomes based on micrometeorological, ecophysiological, and biometric flux and inventory estimates. Globally, GPP of forests benefited from higher temperatures and precipitation whereas NPP saturated above either a threshold of 1500 mm precipitation or a mean annual temperature of 10 1C. The global pattern in NEP was insensitive to climate and is hypothesized to be mainly determined by nonclimatic conditions such as successional stage, management, site history, and site disturbance. In all biomes, closing the CO 2 balance required the introduction of substantial biome-specific closure terms. Nonclosure was taken as an indication that respiratory processes, advection, and non-CO 2 carbon fluxes are not presently being adequately accounted for. Nomenclauture:DOC 5 dissolved organic carbon; fNPP 5 foliage component of NPP; GPP 5 gross primary production (GPP40 denotes photosynthetic uptake); mNPP 5 missing component of NPP;NBP 5 net biome production (NBP40 denotes biome uptake); NECB 5 net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB40 denotes ecosystem uptake); NEE 5 net ecosystem exchange (NEE40 denotes ecosystem uptake); NEP 5 net ecosystem production (NEP40 denotes ecosystem uptake); NPP 5 net primary production (NPP40 denotes ecosystem uptake); R a 5 autotrophic respiration (R a 40 denotes respiratory losses); R e 5 ecosystem respiration (R e 40 denotes respiratory losses); R h 5 heterotrophic respiration (R h 40 denotes respiratory losses); rNPP 5 root component of NPP;R s 5 soil respiration (R s 40 denotes respiratory losses); VOC 5 volatile organic compounds; wNPP 5 wood component of NPP

Summary This paper presents CO2 flux data from 18 forest ecosystems, studied in the European Union funded EUROFLUX project. Overall, mean annual gross primary productivity (GPP, the total amount of carbon (C) fixed during photosynthesis) of these forests was 1380 ± 330 gC m−2 y−1 (mean ±SD). On average, 80% of GPP was respired by autotrophs and heterotrophs and released back into the atmosphere (total ecosystem respiration, TER = 1100 ± 260 gC m−2 y−1). Mean annual soil respiration (SR) was 760 ± 340 gC m−2 y−1 (55% of GPP and 69% of TER). Among the investigated forests, large differences were observed in annual SR and TER that were not correlated with mean annual temperature. However, a significant correlation was observed between annual SR and TER and GPP among the relatively undisturbed forests. On the assumption that (i) root respiration is constrained by the allocation of photosynthates to the roots, which is coupled to productivity, and that (ii) the largest fraction of heterotrophic soil respiration originates from decomposition of young organic matter (leaves, fine roots), whose availability also depends on primary productivity, it is hypothesized that differences in SR among forests are likely to depend more on productivity than on temperature. At sites where soil disturbance has occurred (e.g. ploughing, drainage), soil espiration was a larger component of the ecosystem C budget and deviated from the relationship between annual SR (and TER) and GPP observed among the less‐disturbed forests. At one particular forest, carbon losses from the soil were so large, that in some years the site became a net source of carbon to the atmosphere. Excluding the disturbed sites from the present analysis reduced mean SR to 660 ± 290 gC m−2 y−1, representing 49% of GPP and 63% of TER in the relatively undisturbed forest ecosystems.

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO 2 , water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.