A passive sampling method for radiocarbon analysis of soil respiration using molecular sieve

Mark H. Garnett, Iain P. Hartley, David W. Hopkins, Martin Sornmerkorn, Philip Wookey

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    18 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Radiocarbon analysis Of Soil CO2 can provide information on the age, source and turnover rate of soil organic C. We developed a new method for passively trapping respired CO2 on molecular sieve, allowing it to be returned to the laboratory and recovered for C isotope analysis. We tested the method on a soil at a grassland site, and using a synthetic soil created to provide a contrasting isotopic signature. As with other passive sampling techniques, a small amount of fractionation of the C-13 isotope occurs during sampling, which we have quantified, otherwise the results show that the molecular sieve traps a sufficiently large and representative sample Of CO2 for C isotope analysis. Since C-14 results are routinely corrected for mass-dependent fractionation, our results show that passive sampling of soil respiration using molecular sieve offers a reliable method to collect soil-respired CO2 for C-14 analysis. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1450-1456
    Number of pages7
    JournalSoil Biology and Biochemistry
    Volume41
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 2009

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'A passive sampling method for radiocarbon analysis of soil respiration using molecular sieve'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this