Five years of carbon dioxide fluxes measurements in a highly vegetated suburban area

Suburban areas continue to grow rapidly and are potentially an important land-use category for anthropogenic carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Here eddy covariance techniques are used to obtain ecosystem-scale measurements of CO2 fluxes (F-C) from a suburban area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA (2002-2006). These are among the first multi-year measurements of F-C in a suburban area. The study area is characterized by low population density (1500 inhabitants km(-2)) and abundant vegetation (67.4% vegetation land-cover). F-C is correlated with photosynthetic active radiation (PAR), soil temperature, and wind direction. Missing hourly F-C is gap-filled using empirical relations between F-C, PAR, and soil temperature. Diurnal patterns show net CO2 emissions to the atmosphere during winter and net CO2 uptake by the surface during summer daytime hours (summer daily total is -1.25 gC m(-2) d(-1)). Despite the large amount of vegetation the suburban area is a net CO2 source of 361 gC m(-2)y(-1) on average. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.