Ecosystem respiration is a major component of the global terrestrial carbon cycle and is strongly influenced by temperature. The global extent of the temperature-ecosystem respiration relationship, however, has not been fully explored. Here, we test linear and threshold models of ecosystem respiration across 210 globally distributed eddy covariance sites over an extensive temperature range. We find thresholds to the global temperature-ecosystem respiration relationship at high and low air temperatures and mid soil temperatures, which represent transitions in the temperature dependence and sensitivity of ecosystem respiration. Annual ecosystem respiration rates show a markedly reduced temperature dependence and sensitivity compared to half-hourly rates, and a single mid-temperature threshold for both air and soil temperature. Our study indicates a distinction in the influence of environmental factors, including temperature, on ecosystem respiration between latitudinal and climate gradients at short (half-hourly) and long (annual) timescales. Such climatological differences in the temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration have important consequences for the terrestrial net carbon sink under ongoing climate change.

A N Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow Russia

Autonomous Province of Bolzano Forest Services Bolzano Italy

Bioclimatology University of Goettingen Göttingen Germany

Department of Agroecology Aarhus University Tjele Denmark

Department of Biology Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond VA USA

Department of Ecology University of Innsbruck Innsbruck Austria

Department of Environmental Systems Science ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Department of Geography University of Colorado Boulder CO USA

Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Faculty of Land and Food Systems University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada

Faculty of Science and Technology Free University of Bolzano Bolzano Italy

GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience Potsdam Germany

Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Institute for Agro Environmental Sciences National Agriculture and Food Research Organization Tsukuba Japan

Institute for Bio and Geosciences Agrosphere Forschungszentrum Jülich Jülich Germany

Institute for Mediterranean Agriculture and Forest Systems CNR Ercolano Italy

Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Beijing China

Institute of Bioeconomy CNR Firenze Italy

Joint Research Centre European Commission Ispra Italy

Land and Water Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia

Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science Lund University Lund Sweden

Research Institute for Global Change Institute of Arctic Climate and Environment Research Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology Tsukuba Japan

School of Biological Sciences University of Reading Reading UK

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences The University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland Australia

School of Water Energy and Environment Cranfield University Bedford UK

Thünen Institute of Climate Smart Agriculture Braunschweig Germany

Université de Lorraine AgroParisTech INRAE UMR Silva Nancy France

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Global maps of soil temperature