The canopy coupling index of a tropical forest

During the TREND (Tropical Environmental Data) experiment conducted in Thailand, wind observations were made at several levels below and above a tropical forest canopy. These data allowed us to compute the widely used canopy coupling index and to study its dependence on ambient conditions. Our results indicate that the coupling between the above and below canopy flows depends primarily on stability and wind direction and to a lesser extent on the magnitude of the ambient wind speed. The coupling index as a function of the normalized height below the canopy was best described by exponential functions.     

On the canopy flow index of a tropical forest

The usefulness of the canopy flow index concept is demonstrated for a two-story evergreen tropical forest. A sample of about 2500 wind profiles was utilized. It encompasses a large range of ambient wind conditions and spans the whole monsoon cycle in Southeast Asia.It was found that the use of two canopy flow indices (one for the upper and one for the lower canopy) would be necessary to simulate the average canopy flow. For the upper canopy, an average value of 4.04 was obtained; for the lower canopy an index of 1.77 was computed. The indices seem to be independent of the ambient wind speed (if 2 m s^-1 is exceeded), yet strongly dependent on wind direction.     

Factors affecting the canopy resistance of a Douglas-fir forest

The physiological nature of canopy resistance was studied by comparing the stomatal and canopy resistance of a 10-m high Douglas-fir forest. Stomatal resistance of the needles was measured using porometry, while the canopy resistance was calculated using energy balance/Bowen ratio measurements of evapotranspiration. A typical steady increase in the forest canopy resistance during daytime hours, even at high soil water potentials, was observed. A similar trend in the stomatal resistance indicated that increasing canopy resistance during the daytime was caused by gradually closing stomata. During a dry period when soil water potentials declined from 0 to –10.5 bars, the mean daytime value of canopy resistance increased in proportion to the mean daytime value of the stomatal resistance. Values of canopy resistance calculated from stomatal resistance and leaf area index measurements agreed well with those calculated from energy balance measurements. The dependences of stomatal resistance on light, vapour pressure deficit, twig and soil water potentials art summarized.     

Modeling land surface phenology in a mixed temperate forest using MODIS measurements of leaf area index and land surface temperature

The development of satellite-derived vegetation indices and metrics has enabled researchers to monitor land surface phenology (LSP). While the use of satellite data to monitor LSP is prevalent, there has been minimal effort to model LSP in temperate climates using satellite observations of the land surface. Satellite-derived LSP models are beneficial for studying past and future changes in phenology and related ecosystem processes (e.g., water, energy, and carbon fluxes). The purpose of this study was to model LSP during the spring in a mixed temperate forest using satellite-derived measurements of leaf area index (LAI) and land surface temperature (LST). As part of the model validation process, the use of LST as a proxy for air temperature to model LSP was also investigated. The results indicate that LST derived from the MODIS Terra sensor at 10:30?a.m. (local solar time) can be used to develop a LSP model that predicts the full profile of LAI from winter dormancy to maturity and the date when LAI reaches half of the annual maximum (LAI_50%) with relatively low error. In addition, the modeled LAI values closely tracked in situ observations of the phenological development of the dominant deciduous tree species located in the study area where the model was developed. A comparison of LST and daily maximum air temperature at two levels above the ground surface revealed distinct differences and nonlinearities in the relationship between these two variables. However, accumulated growing degree-days calculated from each of these variables were similar because the largest differences between LST and daily maximum air temperature occurred prior to the beginning of heat accumulation. Consequently, the model predictions of LAI_50% derived from the use of LST and daily maximum air temperature were similar. When the developed model was applied in two other mixed forests, the errors were larger due to substantial interannual variability in the relationship between LAI and heat accumulation and systematic differences in this relationship between sites. Although the model cannot be successfully applied in these other mixed forests, the ability of the model to capture a consistent relationship between satellite estimates of LAI and LST in the study area where it was developed demonstrates that satellite observations of the land surface can be used in certain locations to create LSP phenology models. When validated, the models can be used to examine past and future changes in phenology and related ecosystem processes.     

Sensitivity of a coupled climate model to canopy interception capacity

The canopy interception capacity is a small but key part of the surface hydrology, which affects the amount of water intercepted by vegetation and therefore the partitioning of evaporation and transpiration. However, little research with climate models has been done to understand the effects of a range of possible canopy interception capacity parameter values. This is in part due to the assumption that it does not significantly affect climate. Near global evapotranspiration products now make evaluation of canopy interception capacity parameterisations possible. We use a range of canopy water interception capacity values from the literature to investigate the effect on climate within the climate model HadCM3. We find that the global mean temperature is affected by up to ?0.64 K globally and ?1.9 K regionally. These temperature impacts are predominantly due to changes in the evaporative fraction and top of atmosphere albedo. In the tropics, the variations in evapotranspiration affect precipitation, significantly enhancing rainfall. Comparing the model output to measurements, we find that the default canopy interception capacity parameterisation overestimates canopy interception loss (i.e. canopy evaporation) and underestimates transpiration. Overall, decreasing canopy interception capacity improves the evapotranspiration partitioning in HadCM3, though the measurement literature more strongly supports an increase. The high sensitivity of climate to the parameterisation of canopy interception capacity is partially due to the high number of light rain-days in the climate model that means that interception is overestimated. This work highlights the hitherto underestimated importance of canopy interception capacity in climate model hydroclimatology and the need to acknowledge the role of precipitation representation limitations in determining parameterisations.     

Validation of boundary layer parameters of climate model REMO: estimation of leaf area index from NOAA-AVHRR data for the Baltimos region

The preparation of time- and space-dependent input surface parameters for the climate model REMO was one task of the Baltimos project “Validation of Boundary Layer Parameters and Extension of Boundary conditions of Climate Model REMO”. The leaf area index (LAI) is one of these parameters. It is used in REMO as defined value per month for each land-use class with a defined seasonal trend during the year. Since 1982 at the Institute of Meteorology of the Free University Berlin, a high-resolved AVHRR data set of the NOAA satellite has been available (1/100 degree, approximately 1?×?1 km at nadir in a geographic coordination system) (Koslowsky 1996). The vegetation periods of the years 1997 until 2001 were selected from the dataset to estimate the LAI within the Baltimos region on the basis of an algorithm by Sellers et al. (J Climate 9:706–737, 1996) and a modified United States Geological Survey (USGS) land-use classification. The calculated high-resolved NOAA LAI values were converted to the 1/6 degree grid of the REMO climate model. Then, they were compared to the fixed LAI values, which are used in the model.     

Heat and momentum transport in an oak forest canopy

With the use of a sonic anemometer, vertical heat and momentum fluxes were measured at three different levels in an oak forest canopy. A quadrant analysis of the resulting data shows that approximately half of the transport occurs in extreme events lasting about 5 to 10% of the time. The partition of transport into momentum sweeps, bursts and interactions shows good agreement with existing data. The heat flux is analysed by observing the fluxes during the different momentum events and considering concurrent momentum and heat flux intensities by means of conditional probabilities. While low intensity (normal) events show similar probability distributions throughout the canopy, different structures appear at the three measurement heights for high intensity (extreme) events that can tentatively be explained by taking the temperature profile into account. This supports the idea that these events are coherent motions with scales comparable to the canopy height.     

Simplified expressions for vegetation roughness length and zero-plane displacement as functions of canopy height and area index

Using a previous treatment of drag and drag partition on rough surfaces, simple analytic expressions are derived for the roughness length (z ₀) and zero-plane displacement (d) of vegetated surfaces, as functions of canopy height (h) and area index (). The resulting expressions provide a good fit to numerous field and wind tunnel data, and are suitable for applications such as surface parameterisations in atmospheric models.     

2003—2009年中国地区叶面积指数变化特征分析

为了解2003—2009年中国的叶面积指数(Leaf Area Index,LAI)变化特征,以及不同数据产品的差别,利用基于MODIS数据反演的3组LAI产品,比较分析了中国地区LAI的时空变化特征及其与气候因子的相关。结果表明,3组数据具有总体一致的变化特点,增长区主要位于东北大兴安岭、华北、华中和西南等地;减少区则位于四川盆地、江南以及华南东部;但在云贵川和青藏高原东南部等地有明显差异。在量值上,中科院地理所反演的LAI(LAI1)总体比NASA反演的LAI(LAI2)和北京师范大学反演的LAI(LAI3)偏小,它们在中国常绿阔叶林区的差别可达1.0以上。LAI1与同期降水和气温都有显著的相关,相关系数的空间分布一致,但LAI1的相关系数比LAI3和LAI2偏低。3组数据的差异主要与采用的遥感源数据和反演方法等不同有关。尽管不同LAI数据产品局域和量值差异对定量分析有一定影响,但是它们在时空变化及与气候条件相关等方面的一致性证明了在气候及气候变化研究中的可用性。     

Comprehensive study on the influence of evapotranspiration and albedo on surface temperature related to changes in the leaf area index

Many studies have investigated the influence of evapotranspiration and albedo and emphasize their separate effects but ignore their interactive influences by changing vegetation status in large amplitudes. This paper focuses on the comprehensive influence of evapotranspiration and albedo on surface temperature by changing the leaf area index(LAI) between 30–90 N.Two LAI datasets with seasonally different amplitudes of vegetation change between 30–90N were used in the simulations.Seasonal differences between the results of the simulations are compared, and the major findings are as follows.(1) The interactive effects of evapotranspiration and albedo on surface temperature were different over different regions during three seasons [March–April–May(MAM), June–July–August(JJA), and September–October–November(SON)], i.e., they were always the same over the southeastern United States during these three seasons but were opposite over most regions between30–90 N during JJA.(2) Either evapotranspiration or albedo tended to be dominant over different areas and during different seasons. For example, evapotranspiration dominated almost all regions between 30–90N during JJA, whereas albedo played a dominant role over northwestern Eurasia during MAM and over central Eurasia during SON.(3) The response of evapotranspiration and albedo to an increase in LAI with different ranges showed different paces and signals. With relatively small amplitudes of increased LAI, the rate of the relative increase in evapotranspiration was quick, and positive changes happened in albedo. But both relative changes in evapotranspiration and albedo tended to be gentle, and the ratio of negative changes of albedo increased with relatively large increased amplitudes of LAI.     

Observed variations of leaf area index and its relationship with surface temperatures during warm seasons

Summary The leaf area index (LAI) is one of the most critical variables describing the biophysical and biochemical properties of the land cover in the remote sensing and climate models. In this study, the climatological variations of LAI is analyzed with NOAA’s 14-year (1981–1994) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) measurements. More attention is given to the 14 months of Julys or the warm seasons, in which interannual LAI variations contain more pronounced signals of dynamic forcing associated with the tropical rainforests and the temperate forests around 60° N. Furthermore, projecting the LAI anomalies into the empirical orthogonal function time series of El Ni?o and other climatologically important events shows that the large-scale circulations play an important role in determining the interannual variations of LAI, likely through the changes of surface insolation, precipitation and soil moisture. It is found that on the global scale LAI and the land surface and skin temperatures are negatively correlated, namely, decreasing LAI corresponds to warm temperatures. However, the regional LAI effects on the land surface climate vary significantly from regions to regions. Received October 13, 2001 Revised December 28, 2001     

Social cohesion and passive adaptation in relation to climate change and disease

Climate change affects biophysical processes related to the transmission of many infectious diseases, with potentially adverse consequences for the health of communities. While our knowledge of biophysical associations between meteorological factors and disease is steadily improving, our understanding of the social processes that shape adaptation to environmental perturbations lags behind. Using computational modeling methods, we explore the ways in which social cohesion can affect adaptation of disease prevention strategies when communities are exposed to different environmental scenarios that influence transmission pathways for diseases such as diarrhea. We developed an agent-based model in which household agents can choose between two behavioral strategies that offer different levels of protection against environmentally mediated disease transmission. One behavioral strategy is initially set as more protective, leading households to adopt it widely, but its efficacy is sensitive to variable weather conditions and stressors such as floods or droughts that modify the disease transmission system. The efficacy of the second strategy is initially moderate relative to the first and is insensitive to environmental changes. We examined how social cohesion (defined as average number of household social network connections) influences health outcomes when households attempt to identify an optimal strategy by copying the behaviors of socially connected neighbors who seem to have adapted successfully in the past. Our simulation experiments suggest that high-cohesion communities are able to rapidly disseminate the initially optimal behavioral strategy compared to low-cohesion communities. This rapid and pervasive change, however, decreases behavioral diversity; i.e., once a high cohesion community settles on a strategy, most or all households adopt that behavior. Following environmental changes that reduce the efficacy of the initially optimal strategy, rendering it suboptimal relative to the alternative strategy, high-cohesion communities can fail to adapt. As a result, despite faring better early in the course of computational experiments, high-cohesion communities may ultimately experience worse outcomes. In the face of uncertainty in predicting future environmental stressors due to climate change, strategies to improve effective adaptation to optimal disease prevention strategies should balance between intervention efforts that promote protective behaviors based on current scientific understanding and the need to guard against the crystallization of inflexible norms. Developing generalizable models allows us to integrate a wide range of theories and multiple datasets pertaining to the relationship between social mechanisms and adaptation, which can provide further understanding of future climate change impacts. Models such as the one we present can generate hypotheses about the mechanisms that underlie the dynamics of adaptation events and suggest specific points of measurement to assess the impact of these mechanisms. They can be incorporated as modules within predictive simulations for specific socio-ecological contexts.     

Evapotranspiration and canopy resistance of grass in a Mediterranean region

Summary A simple method for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ET) could become a suitable tool for irrigation scheduling. Resistance models can be useful if data on canopy resistance to water vapor flow (rc) and on aerodynamic resistance (ra) are available. These parameters are complex and hard to obtain. In this studyrc is analysed for a reference crop (grass meadow). Canopy resistance is dependent on climate, weather (radiation, atmospheric vapor pressure deficit, aerodynamic resistance), agronomic practices (irrigation, grass cutting) and time scale (hour, day). Anrc model, proposed by Katerji and Perrier (KP model), using some meteorological parameters as inputs, is presented. Canopy resistance calculated according to the KP model was used to estimate a referenceET _ref on hourly and daily time scales.TheET _ref estimated using the KP model on a daily time scale was compared with a model proposed by Allen, Jensen, Wright and Burman (AJWB model) — in whichrc depends on leaf area index only — and with direct measurements from a weighing lysimeter. The results show an underestimation of 18% for the AJWB model against an underestimation of 2% for the KP model. Since the hypotheses are the same for both models and aerodynamic resistance plays a secondary role, the better results obtained by the KP model are due torc modelling.With 11 Figures     

A spectral and lag-correlation analysis of turbulence in a deciduous forest canopy

The processes influencing turbulence in a deciduous forest and the relevant length and time scales are investigated with spectral and cross-correlation analysis. Wind velocity power spectra were computed from three-dimensional wind velocity measurements made at six levels inside the plant canopy and at one level above the canopy. Velocity spectra measured within the plant canopy differ from those measured in the surface boundary layer. Noted features associated with the within-canopy turbulence spectra are: (a) power spectra measured in the canopy crown peak at higher wavenumbers than do those measured in the subcanopy trunkspace and above the canopy; (b) peak spectral values collapse to a relatively universal value when scaled according to a non-dimensional frequency comprised of the product of the natural frequency and the Eulerian time scale for vertical velocity; (c) at wavenumbers exceeding the spectral peak, the slopes of the power spectra are more negative than those observed in the surface boundary layer; (d) Eulerian length scales decrease with depth into the canopy crown, then increase with further depth into the canopy; (e) turbulent events below crown closure are more correlated with turbulent events above the canopy than are those occurring in the canopy crown; and (f) Taylor's frozen eddy hypothesis is not valid in a plant canopy. Interactions between plant elements and the mean wind and turbulence alter the processes that produce, transport and remove turbulent kinetic energy and account for the noted observations.     

Spatial modelling of rice yield losses in Tanzania due to bacterial leaf blight and leaf blast in a changing climate

Rice is the most rapidly growing staple food in Africa and although rice production is steadily increasing, the consumption is still out-pacing the production. In Tanzania, two important diseases in rice production are leaf blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae and bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The objective of this study was to quantify rice yield losses due to these two important diseases under a changing climate. We found that bacterial leaf blight is predicted to increase causing greater losses than leaf blast in the future, with losses due to leaf blast declining. The results of this study indicate that the effects of climate change on plant disease can not only be expected to be uneven across diseases but also across geographies, as in some geographic areas losses increase but decrease in others for the same disease.     

中高纬林区气候资源有效利用与可持续发展的研究

中高纬林区具有得天独厚的气候资源，在兼顾环境保护、生态平衡、结构调整和绿色产业等方面的同时，提出了大兴安岭地区应以“天然林保护工程＋冷凉型农业＋生态旅游”综合型产业为主，以北药、山野产品为辅的可持续发展建议。     

Interannual variability of Mediterranean evaporation and its relation to regional climate

Gridded monthly evaporation data for 1958–2006 from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution data set are used to investigate interannual variability of Mediterranean evaporation during cold and hot seasons and its relation to regional atmospheric dynamics, sea surface temperature and atmospheric elements of the hydrological cycle. The first EOF mode of Mediterranean evaporation, explaining more than 50% of its total variance, is characterized by the monopole pattern both in winter and summer. However, despite structural similarity, the EOF-1 of Mediterranean evaporation is affected by different climate signals in cold and hot seasons. During winter the EOF-1 is associated with the East Atlantic teleconnection pattern. In summer, there is indication of tropical influence on the EOF-1 of Mediterranean evaporation (presumably from Asian monsoon). Both in winter and summer, principal components of EOF-1 demonstrate clear interdecadal signals (with a stronger signature in summer) associated with large sea surface temperature anomalies. The results of a sensitivity analysis suggest that in winter both the meridional wind and the vertical gradient of saturation specific humidity (GSSH) near the sea surface contribute to the interdecadal evaporation signal. In summer, however, it is likely that the signal is more related to GSSH. Our analysis did not reveal significant links between the Mediterranean evaporation and the North Atlantic Oscillation in any season. The EOF-2 of evaporation accounts for 20% (11%) of its total variance in winter (in summer). Both in winter and summer the EOF-2 is characterized by a zonal dipole with opposite variations of evaporation in western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. This mode is associated presumably with smaller scale (i.e., local) effects of atmospheric dynamics. Seasonality of the leading modes of the Mediterranean evaporation is also clearly seen in the character of their links to atmospheric elements of the regional hydrological cycle. In particular, significant links to precipitation in some regions have been found in winter, but not in summer.     

Atmospheric blocking and its relation to jet changes in a future climate

The future changes of atmospheric blocking over the Euro-Atlantic sector, diagnosed from an ensemble of 17 global-climate simulations obtained with the ECHAM5/MPI-OM model, are shown to be largely explainable from the change of the 500 hPa mean zonal circulation and its variance. The reduction of the blocking frequency over the Atlantic and the increased frequency of easterly upper-level flow poleward of 60°N are well explained by the changes of mean zonal circulation. In winter and autumn an additional downstream shift of the frequency maximum is simulated. This is also seen in a subset of the CMIP5 models with RCP8.5. To explain this downstream shift requires the inclusion of the changing variance. It is suggested that the increased downstream variance is caused by the stronger, more eastward extending future jet, which promotes Rossby wave breaking and blocking to occur further downstream. The same relation between jet-strength and central-blocking longitude is found in the variability of the current climate.     

Observation of organized structure in turbulent flow within and above a forest canopy

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.     

西北地区退耕还林对区域气候的影响

利用区域气候模式RegCM3,研究我国西北地区退耕还林,对区域气候可能产生的影响。对比分析结果表明：大规模有组织的退耕还林会对中国局地和区域气候产生显著的影响,但不同的退耕方式会产生不同的气候效应。退耕还林会使我国的雨带北移,北方地区降水增加,南方地区降水减少。退耕还林可使我国夏季平均温度降低,冬季温度升高,并且随退耕区的扩大,幅度增大。