Quantifying the Intrinsic Q10 of Ecosystem and Component Respiration in a Eucalypt Forest: Implications for Climate‐Carbon Feedback

Ecosystem respiration is a major biosphere–atmosphere carbon flux that creates a positive feedback effect on global warming. However, our current poor understanding of the temperature sensitivity of respiration has led to uncertainties in estimating the strength of this feedback. In this study, a time‐series decomposition technique incorporating wavelet coherence analysis was designed to assess the temperature sensitivity (Q10) of ecosystem (Reco), stem (Rstem), and soil (Rsoil) respiration in a mature eucalypt forest, providing new insights into respiration–temperature response relationships. Our method effectively calculated intrinsic Q10 values for Reco, Rstem, and Rsoil of 1.40 (95% CI: 1.34–1.46), 1.61 (95% CI: 1.54–1.67), and 1.57 (95% CI: 1.37–1.78), while the apparent Q10 values were 1.92, 1.13, and 2.38, respectively. We found that the non‐temperature confounding effect was the main factor leading to the discrepancy between the apparent Q10 calculations and the intrinsic Q10. Furthermore, by comparing our intrinsic Q10 values with the conventional value of 2.0, adopted in many Earth system models, we found that past model simulation results may have overestimated the sensitivity of terrestrial carbon release to temperature increases. Our study establishes a refined methodological framework for determining accurate Q10 values, thereby helping reduce uncertainties in modeling global climate–carbon cycle interactions.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Plant, Cell and Environment

• Publication date

  2025-11-12

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/pce.70286PMID 41221833
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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