This animation shows daily soil temperature estimates from Biome-BGC for one year out of a fourteen-year sequence (1983-1996). In addition to showing the progression of seasonal warming and cooling, these results also illustrate the spatial and temporal complexity of the freeze-thaw transition in the mid and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere.
Soil temperature is an important control on heterotrophic respiration (HR). Interannual variation in HR is a strong determinant of the net exchange of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems. These results help us to interpret the predictions of net ecosystem carbon exchange from Biome-BGC, and aid in the comparison of those predictions to observed interannual variations in the atmospheric CO2 concentration.