Soil respiration: implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 efflux rates in three ecosystems

The study finds that inserting soil collars, even by a few centimetres, consistently underestimates total soil CO2 efflux by severing surface roots, with the magnitude of the reduction depending on the ecosystem's root distribution and the depth of insertion.

• Collar insertion by only a few centimetres reduces total soil CO2 efflux across all three studied ecosystems by an average of 15%, with some instances reaching reductions of 30–50%. This reduction is directly proportional to the amount of fine roots severed during insertion.
• The impact of collar insertion varies by ecosystem; the greatest reduction in CO2 efflux occurred in the shallow-rooted peatland system, while the least reduction was observed in the deep-rooted grassland.
• The drivers of CO2 flux variation differ by site: in forest and grassland ecosystems, soil temperatures primarily explain deep-collar (heterotrophic) variation and do not relate to root-derived (autotrophic) flux, whereas the opposite relationship exists in the peatland site.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2011). Soil respiration: implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 efflux rates in three ecosystems. https://www.sei.org/publications/soil-respiration-implications-of-the-plant-soil-continuum-and-respiration-chamber-collar-insertion-depth-on-measurement-and-modelling-of-soil-co2-efflux-rates-in-three-ecosystems/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Soil respiration: implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 efflux rates in three ecosystems. 2011. https://www.sei.org/publications/soil-respiration-implications-of-the-plant-soil-continuum-and-respiration-chamber-collar-insertion-depth-on-measurement-and-modelling-of-soil-co2-efflux-rates-in-three-ecosystems/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Soil respiration: implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 efflux rates in three ecosystems |date=1 February 2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/soil-respiration-implications-of-the-plant-soil-continuum-and-respiration-chamber-collar-insertion-depth-on-measurement-and-modelling-of-soil-co2-efflux-rates-in-three-ecosystems/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2011soil, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Soil respiration: implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 efflux rates in three ecosystems}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, month = feb, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/soil-respiration-implications-of-the-plant-soil-continuum-and-respiration-chamber-collar-insertion-depth-on-measurement-and-modelling-of-soil-co2-efflux-rates-in-three-ecosystems/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }