Soil CO2 Flux and Litterfall Measurements from Costa Rican Tree Plantations

Hourly and survey-based measurements of soil CO2 emission rates, soil moisture, temperature, and litterfall from six tree plantation types at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. The dataset spans from 2003 to 2010, capturing diel, monthly, and inter-annual variations. It was collected by NASA to study soil respiration dynamics in a managed tropical forest environment.

Use Cases

• Modeling hourly and seasonal soil respiration rates using CO2 flux, moisture, and temperature measurements.
• Analyzing the relationship between litterfall production (collected and sorted monthly) and soil CO2 emissions across different tree species.
• Comparing inter-annual variation in carbon cycling from six plantation types using repeated measurements at fixed sites.
• Studying diel cycles of soil CO2 flux through intensive 2-day hourly measurement campaigns.

Strengths

• Includes multi-year temporal coverage from 2003 to 2010, allowing analysis of inter-annual trends.
• Combines high-frequency hourly measurements with broader survey campaigns for multi-scale analysis.
• Data collected at consistent sites across six plantation types enables controlled comparison.
• Litterfall data is detailed, being collected monthly and sorted into fractions.

Limitations

• Exact row count, column names, and dataset size are unspecified across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the last update date: one lists 2026-03-12, another lists 2010-02 25.
• Most emissions data represent single flux measurements with only 3-5 replicates per plot.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Field measurements: hourly soil CO2 flux during 2-day campaigns and single daytime surveys; monthly litterfall collection sorted into fractions.

Time Range

2003-2010

Freshness

2026-03 12 21:29:08.031104

Geography

La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica