Respiration, ecosystem Gross carbon dioxide production by all organisms in an ecosystem. Ecosystem respiration is the sum of all respiration occurring by the living organisms in a specific ecosystem. Originally from the CUAHSI HIS VariableNameCV. See: http://his.cuahsi.org/mastercvreg/edit_cv11.aspx?tbl=VariableNameCV. ODM2 Variable Name Controlled Vocabulary ODM2 Working Group A vocabulary for describing the name of Variables.