Modelling Vegetation-Atmosphere Co2 Exchange By A Coupled Eulerian-Langrangian Approach

A Eulerian-Lagrangian canopy microclimate model wasdeveloped with the aim of discerning physical frombiophysical controls of CO₂ and H₂O fluxes. The model couples radiation attenuation with mass,energy, and momentum exchange at different canopylevels. A unique feature of the model is its abilityto combine higher order Eulerian closure approachesthat compute velocity statistics with Lagrangianscalar dispersion approaches within the canopy volume. Explicit accounting for within-canopy CO₂,H₂O, and heat storage is resolved by consideringnon-steadiness in mean scalar concentration andtemperature. A seven-day experiment was conducted inAugust 1998 to investigate whether the proposedmodel can reproduce temporal evolution of scalar(CO₂, H₂O and heat) fluxes, sources andsinks, and concentration profiles within and above auniform 15-year old pine forest. The modelreproduced well the measured depth-averaged canopy surfacetemperature, CO₂ and H₂O concentrationprofiles within the canopy volume, CO₂ storageflux, net radiation above the canopy, and heat andmass fluxes above the canopy, as well as the velocitystatistics near the canopy-atmosphere interface. Implications for scaling measured leaf-levelbiophysical functions to ecosystem scale are alsodiscussed.