Direct effect of aerosols on solar radiation and gross primary production in boreal and hemiboreal forests

Abstract

<jats:p>Abstract. The effect of an aerosol loading on solar radiation and further on photosynthesis is a relevant question for estimating climate feedback mechanisms. This effect is quantified in the present study using ground-based measurements from five remote sites in boreal and hemiboreal (coniferous and mixed) forests of Eurasia. The diffuse fraction of global radiation associated with the direct effect of aerosols, that is excluding the effect of clouds, increases with an increasing aerosol loading. The increase in the diffuse fraction of global radiation from approximately 0.11 on the days characterized by low aerosol loading up to 0.2–0.27 pertaining to relatively high aerosol loading leads to the increase in gross primary production (GPP) at all sites by 6–14 %. The largest increase in GPP (relative to the days with low aerosol loading) is observed for two types of ecosystems: a coniferous forest at the high latitudes and a mixed forest at the middle latitudes. For the former ecosystem the change in GPP due to relatively large increase in the diffuse radiation is compensated by the moderate increase in the light use efficiency. For 10 the latter ecosystem, the increase in diffuse radiation is smaller for the same aerosol loading, but the smaller change in GPP due to this relationship between radiation and aerosol loading is compensated by the higher increase in the light use efficiency. The dependency of GPP on the diffuse fraction of solar radiation has a weakly pronounced maximum related to clouds. </jats:p>

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