Dave Billesbach

The Cooling Trend of Canopy Temperature During the Maturation, Succession, and Recovery of Ecosystems

The maximum exergy dissipation theory provides a theoretical basis for using surface temperature to measure the status and development of ecosystems, which could provide an early warning of rapid evaluation of ecosystem degradation. In the present study, we used the radiation balance of ecosystems to demonstrate this hypothesis theoretically. Further, we used empirical data to verify whether ecosystems gain more radiation, while lowering their surface temperatures, as they develop naturally. We analyzed 12 chronosequences from the FLUXNET database using meteorological data and heat fluxes. We included age, disturbance, and successional chronosequences across six climate zones. Net radiation (Rn) and the ratio of net radiation to global radiation (Rn/Rg) were used to measure the energy gain of the ecosystems. The maximum daily air temperature above the canopy (Tmax) and thermal response number (TRN) were used to analyze the surface temperature trends with ecosystem natural development. The general trends of Tmax, TRN, Rn, and Rn/Rg demonstrated that ecosystems become cooler and more stable, yet gain more energy, throughout their natural development. Among the four indicators, TRN showed the most consistent trends and highest sensitivity to ecosystem growth, succession, and recovery. Moreover, TRN was not significantly influenced by precipitation or wind. We propose that TRN can be used to rapidly evaluate or warn of ecosystem disturbance, senescence, and degradation without prior knowledge of species composition, nutrient status, and complex ecosystem processes.

The influence of land cover on surface energy partitioning and evaporative fraction regimes in the U.S. Southern Great Plains

Author(s): Bagley, JE; Kueppers, LM; Billesbach, DP; Williams, IN; Biraud, SC; Torn, MS | Abstract:

A Novel Diffuse Fraction‐Based Two‐Leaf Light Use Efficiency Model: An Application Quantifying Photosynthetic Seasonality across 20 AmeriFlux Flux Tower Sites

Diffuse radiation can increase canopy light use efficiency (LUE). This creates the need to differentiate the effects of direct and diffuse radiation when simulating terrestrial gross primary production (GPP). Here, we present a novel GPP model, the diffuse-fraction-based two-leaf model (DTEC), which includes the leaf response to direct and diffuse radiation, and treats maximum LUE for shaded leaves (emsh defined as a power function of the diffuse fraction (Df)) and sunlit leaves (emsu defined as a constant) separately. An Amazonian rainforest site (KM67) was used to calibrate the model by simulating the linear relationship between monthly canopy LUE and Df . This showed a positive response of forest GPP to atmospheric diffuse radiation, and suggested that diffuse radiation was more limiting than global radiation and water availability for Amazon rainforest GPP on a monthly scale. Further evaluation at 20 independent AmeriFlux sites showed that the DTEC model, when driven by monthly meteorological data and MODIS leaf area index (LAI) products, explained 70% of the variability observed in monthly flux tower GPP. This exceeded the 51% accounted for by the MODIS 17A2 big-leaf GPP product. The DTEC models explicit accounting for the impacts of diffuse radiation and soil water stress along with its parameterization for C4 and C3 plants was responsible for this difference. The evaluation of DTEC at Amazon rainforest sites demonstrated its potential to capture the unique seasonality of higher GPP during the diffuse radiation-dominated wet season. Our results highlight the importance of diffuse radiation in seasonal GPP simulation.

AmeriFlux US-AR2 ARM USDA UNL OSU Woodward Switchgrass 2

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-AR2 ARM USDA UNL OSU Woodward Switchgrass 2. Site Description - The ARM USDA UNL OSU Woodward Switchgrass 2 tower is located on public land owned by the USDA-ARS Southern Plains Range Research Station in Woodward, Oklahoma. The site is on a former wheat field that is in the process of changing to switchgrass. A companion site (ARM USDA UNL OSU Woodward Switchgrass 1) is on a former native prairie. Previous wheat was planted in Fall 2008. In Spring 2009, herbicide was applied to kill the wheat prior to switchgrass planting. Later in the year, the site was sprayed with post-emergence herbicide. In 2010, fertilization occurred before herbicide was sprayed for broadleaf control.

Carbonyl Sulfide for Tracing Carbon Fluxes Field Campaign Report

The April-June 2012 campaign was located at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) site Central Facility and had three purposes. One goal was to demonstrate the ability of current instrumentation to correctly measure fluxes of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS). The approach has been describe previously as a critical approach to advancing carbon cycle science1,2, but requires further investigation at the canopy scale to resolve ecosystem processes. Previous canopy-scale efforts were limited to data rates of 1Hz. While 1 Hz measurements may work in a few ecosystems, it is widely accepted that data rates of 10 to 20 Hz are needed to fully capture the exchange of traces gases between the atmosphere and vegetative canopy. A second goal of this campaign was to determine if canopy observations could provide information to help interpret the seasonal double peak in airborne observations at SGP of CO2 and COS mixing ratios. A third goal was to detect potential sources and sinks of COS that must be resolved before using COS as a tracer of gross primary productivity (GPP).

Eddy-Covariance and auxiliary measurements, NGEE-Barrow, 2012-2013

The EC tower is operated as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment-Arctic (NGEE) at Barrow, Alaska. The tower is collecting flux data from the beginning of the thaw season, early June, and until conditions are completely frozen, early November. The tower is equipped with a Gill R3-50 Sonic Anemometer, LI-7700 (CH4) sensor, a LI-7500A (CO2/H2O) sensor, and radiation sensors (Kipp and Zonen CNR-4 (four component radiometer), two LiCor LI-190 quantum sensors (PAR upwelling and downwelling), and a down-looking Apogee SI-111 infrared radiometer (surface temperature)). The sensors are remotely controlled, and communication with the tower allows us to retrieve information in real time.