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Journal of Arid Land  2026, Vol. 18 Issue (8): 1304-1330    DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridl.2026.08.002    
Research article     
Temporal variability and environmental drivers of net ecosystem CO2 exchange in terrestrial ecosystems of the Yellow River Basin
LIN Feng1, YANG Ping2,3,*(), FANG Yuju4, ZHAO Xuepeng5, ZHAO Qiang1, SONG Qingfan1, JIANG Jiyi1
1 School of Water Conservancy and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
2 Culture and Tourism College, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
3 Institute of Desert Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Urumqi 830002, China
4 Jinan Quanjing Middle School, Jinan 250000, China
5 School of Economics and Management, Changji University, Changji 831100, China
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Abstract  

The Yellow River Basin (YRB), located in the mid-latitude region of China, encompasses diverse ecosystem types and is highly sensitive to climate change. However, the temporal patterns and environmental drivers of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) across multiple time scales remain poorly understood. Using eddy covariance observations from the ChinaFLUX network collected between 2003 and 2020, this study investigated the temporal dynamics of NEE and its primary environmental controls in five representative ecosystem types within the YRB and its adjacent 100-km buffer zone: cropland, forest, grassland, shrubland, and wetland ecosystems. The results showed that all five ecosystems exhibited a generally U-shaped diurnal pattern from May to September, characterized by net CO2 uptake during the daytime and net CO2 release at night. At the daily scale, cropland displayed a typical bimodal carbon uptake pattern, whereas forest ecosystem exhibited the greatest day-to-day variability in NEE. In contrast, grassland, shrubland, and wetland ecosystems showed relatively smooth daily fluctuations. The net CO2 source-sink functions derived from NEE differed substantially among ecosystem types. Forest ecosystems acted as the most stable and persistent carbon sinks, whereas croplands exhibited short-term but high-intensity carbon uptake. Wetlands showed pronounced interannual variability, including an extreme net CO2 release event at the Haibei wetland site in 2007. Grassland and shrubland ecosystems were more susceptible to environmental stress and could shift from net CO2 sinks to net CO2 sources during drought years. The environmental controls on NEE exhibited clear time-scale dependence. At the half-hourly scale, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was the dominant driver of NEE variability, the influence of temperature increased progressively from the daily to monthly scales. These findings improve the understanding of regional carbon dynamics in the YRB, provide insights into the net CO2 source-sink status of different ecosystem types, and elucidate the mechanisms regulating ecosystem CO2 exchange across multiple temporal scales.



Key wordsYellow River Basin (YRB)      eddy covariance      net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE)      Random Forest (RF)      temporal variability      ecosystem types     
Received: 13 February 2026      Published: 31 August 2026
Corresponding Authors: *YANG Ping (E-mail: shc_yangp@ujn.edu.cn)
About author: First author contact:

Conceptualization: LIN Feng; Investigation: LIN Feng, FANG Yuju, ZHAO Xuepeng, SONG Qingfan, JIANG Jiyi; Writing - original draft preparation: LIN Feng; Writing - review & editing: LIN Feng, YANG Ping, FANG Yuju, ZHAO Xuepeng, ZHAO Qiang, SONG Qingfan, JIANG Jiyi; Supervision: YANG Ping, ZHAO Qiang. All authors approved the manuscript.

Cite this article:

LIN Feng, YANG Ping, FANG Yuju, ZHAO Xuepeng, ZHAO Qiang, SONG Qingfan, JIANG Jiyi. Temporal variability and environmental drivers of net ecosystem CO2 exchange in terrestrial ecosystems of the Yellow River Basin. Journal of Arid Land, 2026, 18(8): 1304-1330.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1016/j.jaridl.2026.08.002     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2026/V18/I8/1304

Fig. 1 Location of the selected eddy covariance sites and the spatial distribution of major land-cover types within the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and its adjacent 100-km buffer zone.
Site Ecosystem type Observation period Longitude (°E) Latitude (°N) Data reference Link/doi
Changwu Cropland 2005-2009 107.68 35.24 Wang et al. (2024) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.17188
Luancheng Cropland Oct 2013-Sep 2017 114.41 37.53 Liu et al. (2023a) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.o00119.00050
Shouyang Cropland 2012-2014 113.20 37.50 Mei et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.07304
Yingke Cropland 2008-2011 100.41 38.85 Wang et al. (2024) https://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.301321
Yucheng Cropland 2003-2010 116.57 36.82 Zhao et al. (2021) https://doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.j00001.20002
Arou Grassland 2009-2011 100.46 38.04 Wang et al. (2024) https://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.301321
Damao Grassland 2015-2018 110.32 41.64 Song et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.o00119.00043
Haibei meadow Grassland 2015-2020 101.31 37.61 Zhang et al. (2023b) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.06764
Sanjiangyuan Grassland 2012-2016 100.55 34.35 He et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.o00119.00025
Haibei shrub Shrubland 2003-2013, 2016-2018, and 2020 101.33 37.66 Zhang et al. (2021b, 2023a) https://doi.org/10.12199/nesdc.ecodb.chinaflux2003-2010.2021.hbg.005
https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.06763
Guantan Forest 2008-May 2012 100.25 38.53 Wang et al. (2024) https://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.301321
Baotianman Forest 2017-2018 111.93 33.49 Niu et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.j00001.00859
Xiaolangdi Forest 2011-2020 112.46 35.02 Huang et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.ecodb.00095
Haibei Wetland 2004-2009 101.32 37.60 Zhang et al. (2021a) https://doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.1010
Hongyuan Wetland Jun 2015-2020 102.65 33.10 Chen et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.o00119.00052
Table 1 Basic information for the observation sites
Site Flux processing software/method u* threshold Valid data after QC (%) Short-gap filling Long-gap filling Reference
Changwu - - - LI - Wang et al. (2024)
Luancheng - - 66.0 MDS (<30 d) NLR Liu et al. (2023a)
Shouyang - - - - - Mei et al. (2023)
Yingke REddyProc - - MDS RF Wang et al. (2025b)
Yucheng ChinaFLUX standard method - 39.1-50.4 - ChinaFLUX standard method Zhao et al. (2021)
Arou REddyProc - MDS RF Wang et al. (2025b)
Damao ChinaFLUX standard method 0.10 m/s 34.0-61.6 LI (<2 h) MDS Song et al. (2023)
Haibei meadow EddyPro v. 7.0.6 0.15 m/s 34.7-46.5 - BRT Zhang et al. (2023b)
Sanjiangyuan ChinaFLUX standard method - LI (<2 h) LI and NLR He et al. (2023)
Haibei shrub EddyPro v. 7.0.6 0.15 m/s 38.1-48.3 LI (<2 h) NLR and BRT Zhang et al. (2021b)
Guantan REddyProc - MDS RF Wang et al. (2025b)
Baotianman LoggerNet; EddyPro 6.0.0 0.20 m/s 52.0 and 61.0 - MDS and MDV Niu et al. (2023)
Xiaolangdi - 0.15 m/s in 2016; 0.26 m/s in 2017; and not reported for the remaining years 45.1-67.9 MDS (<15 d) ANN and MDV Huang et al. (2023)
Haibei ChinaFLUX standard method - 34.1-48.9 LI (<2 h) NLR Zhang et al. (2021a)
Hongyuan MATLAB - 31.8-39.3 LI (<2 h) NLR Chen et al. (2023)
Table 2 Summary of net ecosystem carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange (NEE) quality-control procedures, friction velocity (u*) filtering, and gap-filling methods for each observation site
Fig. 2 Monthly mean diurnal cycles of net ecosystem carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange (NEE) in cropland, forest, grassland, shrubland, and wetland ecosystems across the YRB. (a), January; (b), February; (c), March; (d), April; (e), May; (f), June; (g), July; (h), August; (i), September; (j), October; (k), November; (l), December. Negative NEE values indicate net ecosystem CO2 uptake, whereas positive values indicate net CO2 release.
Fig. 3 Intra-annual dynamics of daily NEE in five terrestrial ecosystem types across the YRB study area. (a), cropland; (b), forest; (c), grassland; (d), shrubland; (e), wetland. The dashed horizontal line denotes NEE=0.0 g C/(m2•d); negative NEE values indicate net ecosystem CO2 uptake, whereas positive values indicate net CO2 release.
Fig. 4 Monthly totals of NEE in five terrestrial ecosystem types across the YRB. (a), cropland; (b), forest; (c), grassland; (d), shrubland; (e), wetland. The horizontal line at NEE=0 g C/(m2•month) indicates the balance between net CO2 uptake and net CO2 release. Negative NEE values indicate net ecosystem CO2 uptake, whereas positive values indicate net CO2 release.
Fig. 5 Interannual variations in NEE at selected eddy covariance sites within the YRB. Negative NEE values indicate net ecosystem CO2 uptake, whereas positive values indicate net CO2 release.
Fig. 6 Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) values between NEE and environmental variables across ecosystem types at the half-hourly (a), daily (b), and monthly (c) scales. PAR, photosynthetically active radiation; RH, relative humidity; SWC, soil water content; Ta, air temperature; Ts, soil temperature; VPD, vapor pressure deficit; WS, wind speed; *, significance at P<0.05 level; **, significance at P<0.01 level. "-" indicates that the correlation coefficient was not calculated because of insufficient valid data.
Fig. 7 Relative importance rankings of environmental factors influencing NEE at the half-hourly (a), daily (b), and monthly (c) scales.
Fig. 8 Temporal variations in environmental variables across five ecosystem types during 2016-2017. (a-d), cropland; (e-h), forest; (i-l), grassland; (m-p), shrubland; (q-t), wetland. For ease of comparison, variables with closely related environmental meanings were paired as follows: PAR-Ta for radiative and thermal conditions, RH-VPD for atmospheric moisture conditions, and precipitation-SWC for water input and soil-moisture response; Ts and WS were displayed together as the remaining variables. PAR, Ta, RH, VPD, SWC, Ts, and WS are the 7-day centered moving averages, while precipitation is shown as a 7-day cumulative value. Gaps or absent curves indicate periods or variables with insufficient valid observations.
Fig. 9 Relationships between daily NEE and Ta (a, c, e, g, and i) and between daily NEE and PAR (b, d, f, h, and j) across five ecosystem types. Shaded areas denote the 95% confidence intervals.
Fig. 10 Daytime half-hourly relationships between NEE and PAR during the 2016-2017 growing seasons. (a), cropland; (b), forest; (c), grassland; (d), shrubland; (e), wetland.
Fig. 11 Nighttime half-hourly relationships between NEE and Ta during the 2016-2017 growing seasons. (a), cropland; (b), forest; (c), grassland; (d), shrubland; (e), wetland.
Ecosystem type Study area Time scale CO2 emission/uptake
(g C/m2)
Reference
Cropland Wheat fields in the North China Plain Growing season -437.90 Zhang et al. (2020)
Cropland Jinzhou agroecosystem site, Liaoning Province, China Annual mean -270.00±31.00 Zhang et al. (2021c)
Cropland Yellow River Basin (YRB) Annual mean -447.28 This study
Forest Qilian Mountains Annual -545.99 Du et al. (2022)
Forest Field poplar forest in Hongze Lake Growing season -1758.10 Xu et al. (2018)
Forest YRB Annual mean -350.04 This study
Grassland Horqin sandy grassland Growing season -139.83 Niu et al. (2018)
Grassland Xilinhot grassland Annual -120.00 Wang et al. (2015b)
Grassland YRB Annual mean -25.98 This study
Shrubland East scrub meadow in Qilian Mountains Growing season -662.98 Gao et al. (2022)
Shrubland Yanchi Research Station, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China Annual -77.00 Jia et al. (2014)
Shrubland YRB Annual mean -85.76 This study
Wetland Chongming Dongtan Coastal Reclamation Wetland Growing season -1033.20 Wang et al. (2015a)
Wetland Liaohe Delta Annual mean -556.00 Jia et al. (2017)
Wetland YRB Annual mean 286.28 This study
Table 3 Comparison of CO2 fluxes among different terrestrial ecosystems
Year NEE (g C/(m2•a)) Reco (g C/(m2•a)) GPP (g C/(m2•a))
2004 431.91 1969.94 1538.03
2005 279.68 2088.97 1809.30
2006 610.55 2198.73 1585.17
2007 1027.97 2490.73 1462.34
2008 442.12 2081.46 1639.34
2009 -65.27 2057.68 2122.95
Table S1 Annual net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) and its partitioned components at the Haibei wetland site during 2004-2009
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