A GLOBAL DATABASE OF SOIL RESPIRATION DATA, VERSION 1.0

This data set provides a soil respiration data database (SRDB), a near-universal compendium of published soil respiration (RS) data. Soil respiration, the flux of autotropically- and heterotrophically-generated CO2 from the soil to the atmosphere remains the least well-constrained component of the terrestrial C cycle. The database encompasses all published studies that report one of the following data measured in the field (not laboratory): annual RS, mean seasonal RS, a seasonal or annual partitioning of RS into its sources fluxes, RS temperature response (Q10), or RS at 10 degrees C. Its orientation is thus to seasonal and annual fluxes, not shorter-term or chamber-specific measurements. Data from 818 studies have been entered into the database, constituting 3379 records. The data span the measurement years 1961-2007 and are dominated by temperate, well-drained forests.

The database includes a file of RS data and a linked file of study bibliographic data. Both files are in comma-separated format.