A large daylight geodesic dome for quantification of whole-ecosystem CO2 and water vapour fluxes in arid shrublands

We designed, constructed, calibrated and field-tested a lightweight (30 kg), 4.2 m diameter, 16.4 m3 polyethylene-covered dome static chamber ecosystem gas exchange cuvette that can quantify ecosystem CO2 and water vapour fluxes as low as 0.1 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 and 0.1 mmol H2O m−2 s−1 with little impact on environmental conditions. Fluxes measured in May 2001 in an intact Great Basin sagebrush ecosystem at midday were significantly higher than in an adjacent post-wildfire successional ecosystem, with observed ranges from –0.71 to 1.49 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 for CO2 and from –0.09 to 0.53 mmol H2O m−2 s−1 for water vapour.