Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/16/2013 - 18:16
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Carbon Balance in Warming and Drying Tundra 2013

Why does the machine need to be calibrated? Why do you have to remove all Co2?

Tue, 04/16/2013 - 22:02

Tom Lane

Thanks for the question Nick.The LI-COR needs to be recalibrated whenever its programming is changed/updated. You calibrate it to make sure that when you are reading the measurements of CO2 levels they are accurate. So if you have some CO2 gas that you know the concentration of the LI-COR should read that concentration. If it doesn't you change its settings.
You have to remove (scrub) the CO2 in the lines so that you don't contaminate what you are sampling. Some of the levels of CO2 we measure are so low that the addition of the CO2 in the lines could give us a reading higher than what is actually there.