Mechanistic links between underestimated CO 2 fluxes and non-closure of the surface energy balance in a semi-arid sagebrush ecosystem
Abstract
The surface energy balance non-closure problem in eddy covariance (EC) studies has been largely attributed to the influence of large-scale turbulent eddies (hereafter large eddies) on latent and sensible heat fluxes. However, how such large eddies concurrently affect CO2 fluxes remains less studied and mechanistic links between the energy balance non-closure and CO2 fluxes are not well understood. Here, using turbulence data collected from an EC tower over a sagebrush ecosystem during two growing seasons, we decomposed the turbulence data into small and large eddies at a cutoff frequency and analyzed their contributions to the fluxes. We found that the magnitude of CO2 fluxes decreased concurrently with decreased sensible and latent heat fluxes (and thus increased energy balance non-closure), primarily caused by large turbulent eddies. The contributions of such large eddies to fluxes are dependent not only upon their magnitudes of vertical velocity (w) and scalars (i.e. temperature, water vapor density, and CO2 concentration), but also upon the phase differences between the large eddies of w and scalars via their covariances. Enlarged phase differences between large eddies of w and these scalars simultaneously led to reductions in the magnitudes of both CO2 and heat fluxes, linking the lower CO2 fluxesmore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1506141
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1525293
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-142139
Journal ID: ISSN 1748-9326
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters Journal Volume: 14 Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 1748-9326
- Publisher:
- IOP Publishing
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; CO2 flux; eddy covariance method; ensemble empirical mode decomposition; sensible and latent heat fluxes; surface energy balance closure
Citation Formats
Gao, Zhongming, Liu, Heping, Missik, Justine E. C., Yao, Jingyu, Huang, Maoyi, Chen, Xingyuan, Arntzen, Evan, and Mcfarland, Douglas P. Mechanistic links between underestimated CO 2 fluxes and non-closure of the surface energy balance in a semi-arid sagebrush ecosystem. United Kingdom: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab082d.
Gao, Zhongming, Liu, Heping, Missik, Justine E. C., Yao, Jingyu, Huang, Maoyi, Chen, Xingyuan, Arntzen, Evan, & Mcfarland, Douglas P. Mechanistic links between underestimated CO 2 fluxes and non-closure of the surface energy balance in a semi-arid sagebrush ecosystem. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab082d
Gao, Zhongming, Liu, Heping, Missik, Justine E. C., Yao, Jingyu, Huang, Maoyi, Chen, Xingyuan, Arntzen, Evan, and Mcfarland, Douglas P. Mon .
"Mechanistic links between underestimated CO 2 fluxes and non-closure of the surface energy balance in a semi-arid sagebrush ecosystem". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab082d.
@article{osti_1506141,
title = {Mechanistic links between underestimated CO 2 fluxes and non-closure of the surface energy balance in a semi-arid sagebrush ecosystem},
author = {Gao, Zhongming and Liu, Heping and Missik, Justine E. C. and Yao, Jingyu and Huang, Maoyi and Chen, Xingyuan and Arntzen, Evan and Mcfarland, Douglas P.},
abstractNote = {The surface energy balance non-closure problem in eddy covariance (EC) studies has been largely attributed to the influence of large-scale turbulent eddies (hereafter large eddies) on latent and sensible heat fluxes. However, how such large eddies concurrently affect CO2 fluxes remains less studied and mechanistic links between the energy balance non-closure and CO2 fluxes are not well understood. Here, using turbulence data collected from an EC tower over a sagebrush ecosystem during two growing seasons, we decomposed the turbulence data into small and large eddies at a cutoff frequency and analyzed their contributions to the fluxes. We found that the magnitude of CO2 fluxes decreased concurrently with decreased sensible and latent heat fluxes (and thus increased energy balance non-closure), primarily caused by large turbulent eddies. The contributions of such large eddies to fluxes are dependent not only upon their magnitudes of vertical velocity (w) and scalars (i.e. temperature, water vapor density, and CO2 concentration), but also upon the phase differences between the large eddies of w and scalars via their covariances. Enlarged phase differences between large eddies of w and these scalars simultaneously led to reductions in the magnitudes of both CO2 and heat fluxes, linking the lower CO2 fluxes to energy balance non-closure. Such increased phase differences of large eddies were caused by changes in the structures of large eddies from unstable to near neutral conditions. Given widespread observations in non-closure in the flux community, the processes identified here may bias CO2 fluxes at many sites and cause upscaled regional and global budgets to be underestimated. More studies are needed to investigate how landscape heterogeneity influences CO2 fluxes through the influence of associated large eddies on flux exchange.},
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ab082d},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
number = 4,
volume = 14,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab082d
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
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