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Abstract Purpose of ReviewWhile previously thought to be negligible, carbon emissions during the non-growing season (NGS) can be a substantial part of the annual carbon budget in the Arctic boreal zone (ABZ), which can shift the carbon balance of these ecosystems from a long-held annual carbon sink towards a net annual carbon source. The purpose of this review is to summarize NGS carbon dioxide (CO₂) flux research in the ABZ that has been published within the past 5 years. Recent FindingsWe explore the processes and magnitudes of CO₂fluxes, and the status of modeling efforts, and evaluate future directions. With technological advances, direct measurements of NGS fluxes are increasing at sites across the ABZ over the past decade, showing ecosystems in the ABZ are a large source of CO₂in the shoulder seasons, with low, consistent, winter emissions. SummaryEcosystem carbon cycling models are being improved with some challenges, such as modeling below ground and snow processes, which are critical to understanding NGS CO₂fluxes. A lack of representative in situ carbon flux data and gridded environmental data are leading limiting factors preventing more accurate predictions of NGS carbon fluxes. 

Abstract Ecosystems at high latitudes are changing rapidly in response to climate change. To understand changes in carbon fluxes across seasonal to multi‐decadal timescales, long‐term in situ measurements from eddy covariance networks are needed. However, there are large spatiotemporal gaps in the high‐latitude eddy covariance network. Here we used the relative extrapolation error index in machine learning‐based upscaled gross primary production as a measure of network representativeness and as the basis for a network optimization. We show that the relative extrapolation error index has steadily decreased from 2001 to 2020, suggesting diminishing upscaling errors. In experiments where we limit site activity by either setting a maximum duration or by ending measurements at a fixed time those errors increase significantly, in some cases setting the network status back more than a decade. Our experiments also show that with equal site activity across different theoretical network setups, a more spread out design with shorter‐term measurements functions better in terms of larger‐scale representativeness than a network with fewer long‐term towers. We developed a method to select optimized site additions for a network extension, which blends an objective modeling approach with expert knowledge. This method greatly outperforms an unguided network extension and can compensate for suboptimal human choices. For the Canadian Arctic we show several optimization scenarios and find that especially the Canadian high Arctic and north east tundra benefit greatly from addition sites. Overall, it is important to keep sites active and where possible make the extra investment to survey new strategic locations.