ABoVE: Year-Round Soil CO2 Efflux in Alaskan Ecosystems, 2016-2023

From August 2016 to September 2023, this dataset provides soil-surface carbon dioxide efflux measurements from 11 boreal and tundra sites along a transect from Fairbanks to Atqasuk in Alaska. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration collected the data using forced diffusion chambers that measure soil respiration, CO2 concentrations, and temperatures at multiple depths. Measurements were taken as frequently as hourly, with updates extending temporal coverage at four sites.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal and annual soil carbon flux based on continuous, year-round measurements.
• Analyzing the relationship between soil temperature profiles and CO2 efflux based on data from sensors at 5, 10, and 15 cm depths.
• Comparing soil respiration dynamics across boreal and tundra ecosystems based on data from 11 sites along a latitudinal gradient.
• Validating remote sensing or process-based models of Arctic carbon exchange based on ground-truth flux values.

Strengths

• Provides continuous, year-round measurements with frequencies ranging from hourly to every 48 hours.
• Covers 11 distinct sites along a broad south-to-north transect in Alaska.
• Includes soil CO2 concentration and temperature profile data from three depths, beginning June 2017.
• Temporal coverage spans over seven years, from August 2016 to September 2023, with ongoing sampling.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from Soil Respiration Stations using forced diffusion chambers.

Time Range

2016-08 18 to 2023-09-02

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:45:59.416226; freshness should be verified.

Geography

11 sites along a transect from near Fairbanks to Atqasuk in interior and northern Alaska.