New type of CO2 sensor for ecological measurements

CO2 flux measurement using soil respiration chambers has become increasingly popular in agricultural, forest and ecological research. Most of these chambers are used together with heavy, power hungry and expensive analyzers that limit the mobility of the equipment. Also the pump sampling in these analyzers can create pressure differences in the system that severely distort the flux measurement.

This paper describes a new type of CO2 sensor specifically developed for soil respiration measurements. The features of this sensor is discussed and compared to available alternatives. Results of initial soil respiration measurements using the new sensor are also presented and discussed.