Ramp patterns of temperature and humidity occur coherently at several levels within and above a deciduous forest as shown by data gathered with up to seven triaxial sonic anemometer/thermometers and three Lyman-alpha hygrometers at an experimental site in Ontario, Canada. The ramps appear most clearly in the middle and upper portion of the forest. Time/height cross-sections of scalar contours and velocity vectors, developed from both single events and ensemble averages of several events, portray details of the flow structures associated with the scalar ramps. Near the top of the forest they are composed of a weak ejecting motion transporting warm and/or moist air out of the forest followed by strong sweeps of cool and/or dry air penetrating into the canopy. The sweep is separated from the ejecting air by a sharp scalar microfront. At approximately twice the height of the forest, ejections and sweeps are of about equal strength.In the middle and upper parts of the canopy, sweeps conduct a large proportion of the overall transfer between the forest and the lower atmosphere, with a lesser contribution from ejections. Ejections become equally important aloft. During one 30-min run, identified structures were responsible for more than 75% of the total fluxes of heat and momentum at mid-canopy height. Near the canopy top, the transition from ejection of slow moving fluid to sweep bringing fast moving air from above is very rapid but, at both higher and lower levels, brief periods of upward momentum transfer occur at or immediately before the microfront.

To assess annual budgets of CO 2 exchange between the biosphere and atmosphere over representative ecosystems, long-term measurements must be made over ecosystems that do not exist on ideal terrain. How to interpret eddy covariance measurements correctly remains a major task. At present, net ecosystem CO 2 exchange is assessed, by members of the micrometeorological community, as the sum of eddy covariance measurements and the storage of CO 2 in the underlying air. This approach, however, seems unsatisfactory as numerous investigators are reporting that it may be causing nocturnal respiration flux densities to be underestimated. A new theory was recently published by Lee (1998, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 91: 39-50) for assessing net ecosystem-atmosphere CO 2 exchange (N e) over non-ideal terrain. It includes a vertical advection term. We apply this equation over a temperate broadleaved forest growing in undulating terrain. Inclusion of the vertical advection term yields hourly, daily and annual sums of net ecosystem CO 2 exchange that are more ecologically correct during the growing season. During the winter dormant period, on the other hand, corrected CO 2 flux density measurements of an actively respiring forest were near zero. This observation is unrealistic compared to chamber measurements and model calculations. Only during midday, when the atmosphere is well-mixed, do measurements of N e match estimates based on model calculations and chamber measurements. On an annual basis, sums of N e without the advection correction were 40% too large, as compared with computations derived from a validated and process-based model. With the inclusion of the advection correction term, we observe convergence between measured and calculated values of N e on hourly, daily and yearly time scales. We cannot, however, conclude that inclusion of a one-dimensional, vertical advection term into the continuity equation is sufficient for evaluating CO 2 exchange over tall forests in complex terrain. There is an indication that the neglected term, u(∂c/∂x), is non-zero and that CO 2 may be leaking from the sides of the control volume during the winter. In this circumstance, forest floor CO 2 efflux densities exceed effluxes measured above the canopy.

Abstract. It is not well understood whether coastal upwelling is a net CO2 source to the atmosphere or a net CO2 sink to the ocean due to high temporal variability of air–sea CO2 exchange (CO2 flux) in coastal upwelling zones. Upwelling transports heterotrophic, CO2 enriched water to the surface and releases CO2 to the atmosphere, whereas the presence of nutrient-rich water at the surface supports high primary production and atmospheric CO2 uptake. To quantify the effects of upwelling on CO2 flux, we measured CO2 flux at a coastal upwelling site off of Bodega Bay, California, with the eddy covariance technique during the summer of 2007 and the fall of 2008, and the bulk method with partial pressure of CO2 of surface water (pCO2) data from November 2010 to July 2011. Variations in sea surface temperatures (SST) and alongshore wind velocity suggest that the measurement period in 2007 coincided with a typical early summer upwelling period and the measurement period in 2008 was during a typical fall relaxation period. A strong source of CO2 (~ 1.5 ± 7 SD (standard deviation) g C m−2 day−1) from the ocean to the atmosphere during the upwelling period was concurrent with high salinity, low SST, and low chlorophyll density. In contrast, a weak source of CO2 flux (~ 0.2 ± 3 SD g C m−2 day−1) was observed with low salinity, high SST and high chlorophyll density during the relaxation period. Similarly, the sink and source balance of CO2 flux was highly related to salinity and SST during the pCO2 measurement periods; high salinity and low SST corresponded to high pCO2, and vice versa. We estimated that the coastal area off Bodega Bay was likely an overall source of CO2 to the atmosphere based on the following conclusions: (1) the overall CO2 flux estimated from both eddy covariance and pCO2 measurements showed a source of CO2; (2) although the relaxation period during the 2008 measurements were favorable to CO2 uptake, CO2 flux during this period was still a slight source; (3) salinity and SST were found to be good predictors of the CO2 flux for both eddy covariance and pCO2 measurements, and 99% of the historical SST and salinity data available between 1988 and 2011 fell within the range of our observations in May–June 2007, August–September 2008 and November 2010–July~2011, which indicates that our data set was representative of the annual variations in the sea state. Based on the developed relationship between pCO2, SST and salinity, the study area between 1988 and 2011 was estimated to be an annual source of CO2 of ~ 35 mol C m−2 yr−1. The peak monthly CO2 flux of ~ 7 mol C m−2 month−1 accounted for almost 30% of the dissolved inorganic carbon in the surface mixed layer.

Among the uncertain consequences of climate change on agriculture are changes in timing and quantity of precipitation together with predicted higher temperatures and changes in length of growing season. The understanding of how these uncertainties will affect water use in semiarid irrigated agricultural regions depends on accurate simulations of the terrestrial water cycle and, especially, evapotranspiration. The authors test the hypothesis that the vertical canopy structure, coupled with horizontal variation in this vertical structure, which is associated with ecosystem type, has a strong impact on landscape evapotranspiration. The practical result of this hypothesis, if true, is validation that coupling the Advanced Canopy-Atmosphere-Soil Algorithm (ACASA) and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) models provides a method for increased accuracy of regional evapotranspiration estimates.ACASA-WRF was used to simulate regional evapotranspiration from irrigated almond orchards over an entire growing season. The ACASA model handles all surface and vegetation interactions within WRF. ACASA is a multilayer soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer model that calculates energy fluxes, including evapotranspiration, within the atmospheric surface layer.The model output was evaluated against independent evapotranspiration estimates based on eddy covariance. Results indicate the model accurately predicts evapotranspiration at the tower site while producing consistent regional maps of evapotranspiration (900-1100 mm) over a large area (1600 km 2 ) at high spatial resolution (Dx 5 0.5 km).Modeled results were within observational uncertainties for hourly, daily, and seasonal estimates. These results further show the robustness of ACASA's ability to simulate surface exchange processes accurately in a complex numerical atmospheric forecast model such as WRF.

No abstract