• Contributors: Dennis Baldocchi
  • Publication Type: JOUR
  • Authors: Baldocchi, D.D.; Sturtevant, C.; Fluxnet Contributors
  • Relevant Sites:

  • There is a concern that carbon flux partitioning methods may suffer from spurious correlation because derived values of canopy photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration both contain common information on net carbon fluxes at annual time scales. We found, on average, that the correlation between gross photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration, using day–night sampling, was close to minus one (−0.828±0.130). For perspective, a large fraction of this correlation was real, as the degree of spurious correlation was−0.526.We conclude that the potential for spurious correlation between canopy photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration across the FLUXNET database was moderate.


  • Journal: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
  • Volume: 207
  • No:
  • Pages: 117-126
  • Publication Year:
  • DOI: 10.1016
  • ISBN:
  • http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2015.03.010