Abstract. In recent years evidence has emerged that the amount of isoprene emitted from a leaf is affected by the CO 2 growth environment. Many -though not all -laboratory experiments indicate that emissions increase significantly at below-ambient CO 2 concentrations and decrease when concentrations are raised to above-ambient. A small number of process-based leaf isoprene emission models can reproduce this CO 2 stimulation and inhibition. These models are briefly reviewed, and their performance in standard conditions compared with each other and to an empirical algorithm. One of the models was judged particularly useful for incorporation into a dynamic vegetation model framework, LPJ-GUESS, yielding a tool that allows the interactive effects of climate and increasing CO 2 concentration on vegetation distribution, productivity, and leaf and ecosystem isoprene emissions to be explored. The coupled vegetation dynamics-isoprene model is described and used here in a mode particularly suited for the ecosystem scale, but it can be employed at the global level as well.Annual and/or daily isoprene emissions simulated by the model were evaluated against flux measurements (or model estimates that had previously been evaluated with flux data) from a wide range of environments, and agreement between modelled and simulated values was generally good. By usCorrespondence to: A. Arneth (almut.arneth@nateko.lu.se) ing a dynamic vegetation model, effects of canopy composition, disturbance history, or trends in CO 2 concentration can be assessed. We show here for five model test sites that the suggested CO 2 -inhibition of leaf-isoprene metabolism can be large enough to offset increases in emissions due to CO 2 -stimulation of vegetation productivity and leaf area growth. When effects of climate change are considered atop the effects of atmospheric composition the interactions between the relevant processes will become even more complex. The CO 2 -isoprene inhibition may have the potential to significantly dampen the expected steep increase of ecosystem isoprene emission in a future, warmer atmosphere with higher CO 2 levels; this effect raises important questions for projections of future atmospheric chemistry, and its connection to the terrestrial vegetation and carbon cycle.

The models differ by more than a factor of 5 for specific times and locations, which indicates that there are large uncertainties in emission estimates for at least some locations and seasons. The good agreement obtained for the EXPRESSO study field sites, however, suggests that the model can predict reasonable estimates if representative field measurements are used to parameterize the model.

International audienceWe have measured simultaneously the methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) surface concentrations and water–air fluxes by floating chambers (FC) in the Petit-Saut Reservoir (French Guiana) and its tidal river (Sinnamary River) downstream of the dam, during the two field experiments in wet (May 2003) and dry season (December 2003). The eddy covariance (EC) technique was also used for CO2 fluxes on the lake. The comparison of fluxes obtained by FC and EC showed little discrepancies mainly due to differences in measurements durations which resulted in different average wind speeds. When comparing the gas transfer velocity (k600) for a given wind speed, both methods gave similar results. On the lake and excluding rainy events, we obtained an exponential relationship between k600 and U10, with a significant intercept at 1.7 cm h− 1, probably due to thermal effects. Gas transfer velocity was also positively related to rainfall rates reaching 26.5 cm h−1 for a rainfall rate of 36 mm h− 1. During a 24-h experiment in dry season, rainfall accounted for as much as 25% of the k600. In the river downstream of the dam, k600 values were 3 to 4 times higher than on the lake, and followed a linear relationship with U10

The static chamber method (non-flow-through-non-steady-state chambers) is the most common method to measure fluxes of methane (CH4) from soils. Laboratory comparisons to quantify errors resulting from chamber design, operation and flux calculation methods are rare. We tested fifteen chambers against four flux levels (FL) ranging from 200 to 2300 mu g CH4 M-2 II-1. The measurements were conducted on a calibration tank using three quartz sand types with soil porosities of 53% (dry fine sand, S1), 47% (dry coarse sand, S2), and 33% (wetted fine sand, S3). The chambers tested ranged from 0.06 to 1.8 m in height, and 0.02 to 0.195 m(3) in volume, 7 of them were equipped with a fan, and 1 with a vent-tube. We applied linear and exponential flux calculation methods to the chamber data and compared these chamber fluxes to the reference fluxes from the calibration tank. The chambers underestimated the reference fluxes by on average 33% by the linear flux calculation method (R-Iin), whereas the chamber fluxes calculated by the exponential flux calculation method (R-exp) did not significantly differ from the reference fluxes (p <0.05). The flux under- or overestimations were chamber specific and independent of flux level. Increasing chamber height, area and volume significantly reduced the flux underestimation (p <0.05). Also, the use of non-linear flux calculation method significantly improved the flux estimation; however, simultaneously the uncertainty in the fluxes was increased. We provide correction factors, which can be used to correct the under- or overestimation of the fluxes by the chambers in the experiment. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The AMMA-CATCH Gourma observatory site in Mali: 7The experimental strategy includes deployment of a variety of instruments, from local to 8 meso-scale, dedicated to monitoring and documentation of the major variables characterizing 9 the climate forcing, and the spatio-temporal variability of surface processes and state 10 variables such as vegetation mass, leaf area index (LAI), soil moisture and surface fluxes. 11This paper describes the Gourma site, its associated instrumental network and the research 12 activities that have been carried out since 1984. In the AMMA project, emphasis is put on the 13 relations between climate, vegetation and surface fluxes. However, the Gourma site is also 14 important for development and validation of satellite products, mainly due to the existence of 15 large and relatively homogeneous surfaces. The social dimension of the water resource uses 16 and governance is also briefly analyzed, relying on field enquiry and interviews. 18The climate of the Gourma region is semi-arid, daytime air temperatures are always high and 29Land surface in the Gourma is characterized by rapid response to climate variability, strong

Abstract. African biomass burning emission inventories for gaseous and particulate species have been constructed at a resolution of 1 km by 1km with daily coverage for the 2000-2007 period. These inventories are higher than the GFED2 inventories, which are currently widely in use. Evaluation specifically focusing on combustion aerosol has been carried out with the ORISAM-TM4 global chemistry transport model which includes a detailed aerosol module. This paper compares modeled results with measurements of surface BC concentrations and scattering coefficients from the AMMA Enhanced Observations period, aerosol optical depths and single scattering albedo from AERONET sunphotometers, LIDAR vertical distributions of extinction coefficients as well as satellite data. Aerosol seasonal and interannual evolutions over the 2004-2007 period observed at regional scale and more specifically at the Djougou (Benin) and Banizoumbou (Niger) AMMA/IDAF sites are well reproduced by our global model, indicating that our biomass burning emission inventory appears reasonable.

Freshwater reservoirs are a known source of greenhouse gas (GHG) to the atmosphere, but their quantitative significance is still only loosely constrained. Although part of this uncertainty can be attributed to the difficulties in measuring highly variable fluxes, it is also the result of a lack of a clear accounting methodology, particularly about what constitutes new emissions and potential new sinks. In this paper, we review the main processes involved in the generation of GHG in reservoir systems and propose a simple approach to quantify the reservoir GHG footprint in terms of the net changes in GHG fluxes to the atmosphere induced by damming, that is, 'what the atmosphere sees.' The approach takes into account the pre-impoundment GHG balance of the landscape, the temporal evolution of reservoir GHG emission profile as well as the natural emissions that are displaced to or away from the reservoir site resulting from hydrological and other changes. It also clarifies the portion of the reservoir carbon burial that can potentially be considered an offset to GHG emissions.

Abstract. The present work analyses the effect of dust aerosols on the surface and top of atmosphere radiative budget, surface temperature, sensible heat fluxes, atmospheric heating rate and convective activity over West Africa. The study is focused on the regional impact of a major dust event over the period of 7-14 March 2006 through numerical simulations performed with the mesoscale, nonhydrostatic atmospheric model MesoNH. Due to its importance on radiative budgets, a specific attention has been paid to the representation of dust single scattering albedo (SSA) in MesoNH by using inversions of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET). The radiative impacts are estimated using two parallel simulations, one including radiative effects of dust and the other without them. The simulations of dust aerosol impacts on the radiative budget indicate remarkable instantaneous (at midday) decrease of surface shortwave (SW) radiations over land, with regional (9 • -17 • N, 10 • W-20 • E) mean of −137 W/m 2 during the 9 to 12 March period. The surface dimming resulting from the presence of dust is shown to cause important reduction of both surface temperature (up to 4 • C) and sensible heat fluxes (up to 100 W/m 2 ), which is consistent with experimental observations. At the top of the atmosphere, the SW cooling (regional mean of