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.