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    Introducing ‘miniRECgap’ R package for simple gap-filling of missing eddy covariance CO2 flux measurements with classic nonlinear environmental response functions via GUI-supported R-scripts (case-study: In-sample gap-filling with ‘miniRECgap’ vs. MDS and an optimised shallow ANN in a ‘challenging’ peatland ecosystem)


    Premrov, Alina, Yeluripati, Jagadeesh, Slevin, Richard, Bates, Adam, Matysek, Magdalena, Barry, Stephen, Byrne, Kenneth A., Fealy, Rowan, Hyde, Bernard, Lanigan, Gary, McCorry, Mark, Murphy, Rachael, Renou-Wilson, Florence, Tilak, Amey, Wilson, David and Saunders, Matthew (2025) Introducing ‘miniRECgap’ R package for simple gap-filling of missing eddy covariance CO2 flux measurements with classic nonlinear environmental response functions via GUI-supported R-scripts (case-study: In-sample gap-filling with ‘miniRECgap’ vs. MDS and an optimised shallow ANN in a ‘challenging’ peatland ecosystem). Environmental Modelling and Software, 193. p. 106611. ISSN 1364-8152

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    Abstract

    Numerous tools/software exist to gap-fill missing eddy covariance (EC) data, with varying performance depending on study-site dynamics. Disturbed ecosystems like former cutaway-peatlands may be challenging for gap-filling. Researchers using gap-filling spreadsheets may benefit from transitioning to R, but may face challenges if they lack programming skills. To address these, we introduce ‘miniRECgap’, a user-friendly tool in R for effortless gap-filling of EC carbon dioxide flux data using well-known temperature- and light-response functions. ‘miniRECgap’ can model net ecosystem exchange (NEE) via GUI-supported scripts with only five code-lines and minimal inputs. A case-study on one ‘classic’ (forest) and one ‘challenging’ (rehabilitating cutaway-peatland) ecosystem indicated that standard gap-filling (MDS) performed better for the ‘classic’, but not for the ‘challenging’ ecosystem (MDS R2 = 0.24; ‘miniRECgap’ R2 = 0.57). For the rehabilitating-peatland, an optimised shallow Artificial Neural Network outperformed other two approaches (R2 = 0.68). These findings demonstrate the importance of NEE gap-filling for assessing ecosystem-level carbon-dynamics, important for rehabilitating-peatlands.
    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This work has been performed under the CO2PEAT Research Project entitled “Improving methodologies for reporting and verifying terrestrial CO2 removals and emissions from Irish peatlands” (CO2PEAT, 2024). The authors are grateful to the Irish Environmental Protection Agency for funding the CO2PEAT project 2022-CE-1100 under the EPA Research Programme 2021–2030. The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Thanks also to the SmartBoG Project (2018-CCRP-LS.2) funded by Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the EPA Research Programme 2014–2020 and the Terrain-AI project co-funded by Science Foundation Ireland and by Microsoft (20/SPP/3705). We would also like to thank Tadhg O’Mahony from Irish Environmental Protection Agency, Strategic Environmental Assessment Unit, Office of Evidence & Assessment, Inniscarra, Co. Cork, Ireland. Thanks also to the staff members from Trinity Innovation and Enterprise, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland for their advice and support with ‘miniRECgap’ package/software licensing and related policies.
    Keywords: Eddy covariance gap-filling and flux-partitioning; CO2 fluxes; ‘miniRECgap’ R-package Nonlinear environmental response functions; Artificial neural networks;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
    Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
    Item ID: 20608
    Identification Number: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106611
    Depositing User: Corinne Voces
    Date Deposited: 26 Sep 2025 10:06
    Journal or Publication Title: Environmental Modelling and Software
    Publisher: Elsevier
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/20608
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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