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The influence of hilly terrain on canopy-atmosphere carbon dioxide exchange

Katul, G. G., Finnigan, J. J., Poggi, D., Leuning, R. and Belcher, S. E. (2006) The influence of hilly terrain on canopy-atmosphere carbon dioxide exchange. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 118 (1). pp. 189-216. ISSN 0006-8314

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Abstract/Summary

Topography influences many aspects of forest-atmosphere carbon exchange; yet only a small number of studies have considered the role of topography on the structure of turbulence within and above vegetation and its effect on canopy photosynthesis and the measurement of net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (N-ee) using flux towers. Here, we focus on the interplay between radiative transfer, flow dynamics for neutral stratification, and ecophysiological controls on CO2 sources and sinks within a canopy on a gentle cosine hill. We examine how topography alters the forest-atmosphere CO2 exchange rate when compared to uniform flat terrain using a newly developed first-order closure model that explicitly accounts for the flow dynamics, radiative transfer, and nonlinear eco physiological processes within a plant canopy. We show that variation in radiation and airflow due to topography causes only a minor departure in horizontally averaged and vertically integrated photosynthesis from their flat terrain values. However, topography perturbs the airflow and concentration fields in and above plant canopies, leading to significant horizontal and vertical advection of CO2. Advection terms in the conservation equation may be neglected in flow over homogeneous, flat terrain, and then N-ee = F-c, the vertical turbulent flux of CO2. Model results suggest that vertical and horizontal advection terms are generally of opposite sign and of the same order as the biological sources and sinks. We show that, close to the hilltop, F-c departs by a factor of three compared to its flat terrain counterpart and that the horizontally averaged F-c-at canopy top differs by more than 20% compared to the flat-terrain case.

Item Type:Article
Divisions:Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:5393
Uncontrolled Keywords:advection biosphere-atmosphere exchange canopy flow complex terrain gentle hills net ecosystem exchange photosynthesis 2ND-ORDER CLOSURE MODELS PLANT-CANOPY BOUNDARY-LAYER WATER-VAPOR TURBULENCE FLOW VEGETATION FLUXES WIND CO2

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