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Title: Robust observations of land-to-atmosphere feedbacks using the information flows of FLUXNET

Abstract

Feedbacks between atmospheric processes like precipitation and land surface fluxes including evapotranspiration are difficult to observe, but critical for understanding the role of the land surface in the Earth System. To quantify global surface-atmosphere feedbacks we use results of a process network (PN) applied to 251 eddy covariance sites from the LaThuile database to train a neural network across the global terrestrial surface. There is a strong land–atmosphere coupling between latent (LE) and sensible heat flux (H) and precipitation (P) during summer months in temperate regions, and between H and P during winter, whereas tropical rainforests show little coupling seasonality. Savanna, shrubland, and other semi-arid ecosystems exhibit strong responses in their coupling behavior based on water availability. Feedback couplings from surface fluxes to P peaks at aridity (P/potential evapotranspiration ETp) values near unity, whereas coupling with respect to clouds, inferred from reduced global radiation, increases as P/ETp approaches zero. Spatial patterns in feedback coupling strength are related to climatic zone and biome type. Information flow statistics highlight hotspots of (1) persistent land–atmosphere coupling in sub-Saharan Africa, (2) boreal summer coupling in the central and southwestern US, Brazil, and the Congo basin and (3) in the southern Andes, South Africa andmore » Australia during austral summer. Our data-driven approach to quantifying land atmosphere coupling strength that leverages the global FLUXNET database and information flow statistics provides a basis for verification of feedback interactions in general circulation models and for predicting locations where land cover change will feedback to climate or weather.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States). Dept. of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences; Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
  2. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
  3. Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States). , School of Natural Resources
  4. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States). Dept. of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences
  5. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL). Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Group; The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1800231
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-04ER63911; FG02-04ER63917
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2397-3722
Publisher:
Springer Nature
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences; Atmospheric science; Biogeochemistry

Citation Formats

Gerken, Tobias, Ruddell, Benjamin L., Yu, Rong, Stoy, Paul C., and Drewry, Darren T. Robust observations of land-to-atmosphere feedbacks using the information flows of FLUXNET. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1038/s41612-019-0094-4.
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Gerken, Tobias, Ruddell, Benjamin L., Yu, Rong, Stoy, Paul C., & Drewry, Darren T. Robust observations of land-to-atmosphere feedbacks using the information flows of FLUXNET. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-019-0094-4
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Gerken, Tobias, Ruddell, Benjamin L., Yu, Rong, Stoy, Paul C., and Drewry, Darren T. Tue . "Robust observations of land-to-atmosphere feedbacks using the information flows of FLUXNET". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-019-0094-4. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1800231.
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@article{osti_1800231,
title = {Robust observations of land-to-atmosphere feedbacks using the information flows of FLUXNET},
author = {Gerken, Tobias and Ruddell, Benjamin L. and Yu, Rong and Stoy, Paul C. and Drewry, Darren T.},
abstractNote = {Feedbacks between atmospheric processes like precipitation and land surface fluxes including evapotranspiration are difficult to observe, but critical for understanding the role of the land surface in the Earth System. To quantify global surface-atmosphere feedbacks we use results of a process network (PN) applied to 251 eddy covariance sites from the LaThuile database to train a neural network across the global terrestrial surface. There is a strong land–atmosphere coupling between latent (LE) and sensible heat flux (H) and precipitation (P) during summer months in temperate regions, and between H and P during winter, whereas tropical rainforests show little coupling seasonality. Savanna, shrubland, and other semi-arid ecosystems exhibit strong responses in their coupling behavior based on water availability. Feedback couplings from surface fluxes to P peaks at aridity (P/potential evapotranspiration ETp) values near unity, whereas coupling with respect to clouds, inferred from reduced global radiation, increases as P/ETp approaches zero. Spatial patterns in feedback coupling strength are related to climatic zone and biome type. Information flow statistics highlight hotspots of (1) persistent land–atmosphere coupling in sub-Saharan Africa, (2) boreal summer coupling in the central and southwestern US, Brazil, and the Congo basin and (3) in the southern Andes, South Africa and Australia during austral summer. Our data-driven approach to quantifying land atmosphere coupling strength that leverages the global FLUXNET database and information flow statistics provides a basis for verification of feedback interactions in general circulation models and for predicting locations where land cover change will feedback to climate or weather.},
doi = {10.1038/s41612-019-0094-4},
journal = {npj Climate and Atmospheric Science},
number = 1,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Tue Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
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