Tobias Biermann

Turbulent flux observations and modelling over a shallow lake and a wet grassland in the Nam Co basin, Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau plays an important role in the global water cycle and is strongly influenced by climate change. While energy and matter fluxes have been more intensely studied over land surfaces, a large proportion of lakes have either been neglected or parameterised with simple bulk approaches. Therefore, turbulent fluxes were measured over wet grassland and a shallow lake with a single eddy-covariance complex at the shoreline in the Nam Co basin in summer 2009. Footprint analysis was used to split observations according to the underlying surface, and two sophisticated surface models were utilised to derive gap-free time series. Results were then compared with observations and simulations from a nearby eddy-covariance station over dry grassland, yielding pronounced differences. Observations and footprint integrated simulations compared well, even for situations with flux contributions including grassland and lake. The accessibility problem for EC measurements on lakes can be overcome by combining standard meteorological measurements at the shoreline with model simulations, only requiring representative estimates of lake surface temperature.

Carbon pools and fluxes in a Tibetan alpine Kobresia pygmaea pasture partitioned by coupled eddy-covariance measurements and 13CO2 pulse labeling

The Tibetan highlands host the largest alpine grassland ecosystems worldwide, bearing soils that store substantial stocks of carbon (C) that are very sensitive to land use changes. This study focuses on the cycling of photoassimilated C within a Kobresia pygmaea pasture, the dominating ecosystems on the Tibetan highlands. We investigated short-term effects of grazing cessation and the role of the characteristic Kobresia root turf on C fluxes and belowground C turnover. By combining eddy-covariance measurements with (13)CO₂ pulse labeling we applied a powerful new approach to measure absolute fluxes of assimilates within and between various pools of the plant-soil-atmosphere system. The roots and soil each store roughly 50% of the overall C in the system (76 Mg C ha(-1)), with only a minor contribution from shoots, which is also expressed in the root:shoot ratio of 90. During June and July the pasture acted as a weak C sink with a strong uptake of approximately 2 g C m(-2) d(-1) in the first half of July. The root turf was the main compartment for the turnover of photoassimilates, with a subset of highly dynamic roots (mean residence time 20 days), and plays a key role for the C cycling and C storage in this ecosystem. The short-term grazing cessation only affected aboveground biomass but not ecosystem scale C exchange or assimilate allocation into roots and soil.

A modelling investigation into lake-breeze development and convection triggering in the Nam Co Lake basin, Tibetan Plateau

This paper uses the cloud resolving Active Tracer High-resolution Atmospheric Model coupled to the interactive surface model Hybrid in order to investigate the diurnal development of a lake-breeze system at the Nam Co Lake on the Tibetan Plateau. Simulations with several background wind speeds are conducted, and the interaction of the lake breeze with topography and background wind in triggering moist and deep convection is studied. The model is able to adequately simulate the systems most important dynamical features such as turbulent surface fluxes and the development of a lake breeze for the different wind conditions. We identify two different mechanisms for convection triggering that are dependent on the direction of the background wind: triggering over topography, when the background wind and the lake breeze have the same flow direction, and triggering due to convergence between the lake-breeze front and the background wind. Our research also suggests that precipitation measurements at the centre of the basins on the Tibetan Plateau are not representative for the basin as a whole as precipitation is expected to occur mainly in the vicinity of the topography.

The Kobresia pygmaea ecosystem of the Tibetan highlands – Origin, functioning and degradation of the world's largest pastoral alpine ecosystem: Kobresia pastures of Tibet

With 450,000 km2Kobresia (syn. Carex) pygmaea dominated pastures in the eastern Tibetan highlands are the worlds largest pastoral alpine ecosystem forming a durable turf cover at 3000-6000 m a.s.l. Kobresias resilience and competitiveness is based on dwarf habit, predominantly below-ground allocation of photo assimilates, mixture of seed production and clonal growth, and high genetic diversity. Kobresia growth is co-limited by livestock-mediated nutrient withdrawal and, in the drier parts of the plateau, low rainfall during the short and cold growing season. Overstocking has caused pasture degradation and soil deterioration over most parts of the Tibetan highlands and is the basis for this man-made ecosystem. Natural autocyclic processes of turf destruction and soil erosion are initiated through polygonal turf cover cracking, and accelerated by soil-dwelling endemic small mammals in the absence of predators. The major consequences of vegetation cover deterioration include the release of large amounts of C, earlier diurnal formation of clouds, and decreased surface temperatures. These effects decrease the recovery potential of Kobresia pastures and make them more vulnerable to anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Traditional migratory rangeland management was sustainable over millennia, and possibly still offers the best strategy to conserve and possibly increase C stocks in the Kobresia turf.