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Open-path eddy covariance systems are widely used for measuring the CO2 flux between land and atmosphere. A common problem is that they often yield negative fluxes or physiologically unreasonable CO2 uptake fluxes in the nongrowing season under cold conditions. In this study, a meta-analysis was performed on the eddy flux data from 64 FLUXNET sites and the relationship between the observed CO2 flux and the sensible heat flux was analyzed. In theory, these two fluxes should be independent of each other in cold conditions (air temperature lower than 0 degrees C) when photosynthesis is suppressed. However, the results show that a significant and negative linear relationship existed between these two fluxes at 37 of the sites. The mean linear slope value is -0.008 +/- 0.001 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) per W m(-2) among the 64 sites analyzed. The slope value was not significantly different among the three gas analyzer models (LI-7500, LI-7500A, IRGASON/EC150) used at these sites, indicating that self-heating may not be the only reason for the apparent wintertime net CO2 uptake. These results suggest a systematic bias toward larger carbon uptakes in the FLUXNET sites that deploy open-path eddy covariance systems.