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Climate models require an understanding of ecosystem-scale respiration and photosynthesis, yet there is no way of measuring these two fluxes directly; here, new instrumentation is used to determine these fluxes in a temperate forest, showing, for instance, that respiration is less during the day than at night. Seasonal variation in forest productivity Much of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere is taken up by forest ecosystems. Forest carbon sink estimates are based on the idea that ecosystem respiration is greater during the day than at night and that the efficiency of photosynthetic light use declines after spring. Rick Wehr et al. determine ecosystem photosynthesis and daytime respiration in a temperate deciduous forest over a three-year period on the basis of the isotopic composition of net ecosystem exchange. The work reveals that ecosystem respiration is in fact lower during the day than at night -- evidence of the inhibition of leaf respiration by light (the Kok effect) at the ecosystem scale. The authors argue that current approaches for estimating photosynthesis and daytime respiration do not take this effect into account and therefore overestimate ecosystem photosynthesis and daytime respiration at their forest site, and portray ecosystem photosynthetic light-use efficiency as declining when it is in fact stable. The findings may have implications for estimates of biospheric productivity and carbon cycle-climate interactions. Terrestrial ecosystems currently offset one-quarter of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) emissions because of a slight imbalance between global terrestrial photosynthesis and respiration.sup.1. Understanding what controls these two biological fluxes is therefore crucial to predicting climate change.sup.2. Yet there is no way of directly measuring the photosynthesis or daytime respiration of a whole ecosystem of interacting organisms; instead, these fluxes are generally inferred from measurements of net ecosystem-atmosphere CO.sub.2 exchange (NEE), in a way that is based on assumed ecosystem-scale responses to the environment. The consequent view of temperate deciduous forests (an important CO.sub.2 sink) is that, first, ecosystem respiration is greater during the day than at night; and second, ecosystem photosynthetic light-use efficiency peaks after leaf expansion in spring and then declines.sup.3, presumably because of leaf ageing or water stress. This view has underlain the development of terrestrial biosphere models used in climate prediction.sup.4,5 and of remote sensing indices of global biosphere productivity.sup.5,6. Here, we use new isotopic instrumentation.sup.7 to determine ecosystem photosynthesis and daytime respiration.sup.8 in a temperate deciduous forest over a three-year period. We find that ecosystem respiration is lower during the day than at night--the first robust evidence of the inhibition of leaf respiration by light.sup.9,10,11 at the ecosystem scale. Because they do not capture this effect, standard approaches.sup.12,13 overestimate ecosystem photosynthesis and daytime respiration in the first half of the growing season at our site, and inaccurately portray ecosystem photosynthetic light-use efficiency. These findings revise our understanding of forest-atmosphere carbon exchange, and provide a basis for investigating how leaf-level physiological dynamics manifest at the canopy scale in other ecosystems., Author(s): R. Wehr [sup.1] , J. W. Munger [sup.2] , J. B. McManus [sup.3] , D. D. Nelson [sup.3] , M. S. Zahniser [sup.3] , E. A. Davidson [sup.4] , [...]

Terrestrial ecosystems currently offset one-quarter of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) emissions because of a slight imbalance between global terrestrial photosynthesis and respiration (1). Understanding what controls these two biological fluxes is therefore crucial to predicting climate change (2). Yet there is no way of directly measuring the photosynthesis or daytime respiration of a whole ecosystem of interacting organisms; instead, these fluxes are generally inferred from measurements of net ecosystem-atmosphere C[O.sub.2] exchange (NEE), in a way that is based on assumed ecosystem-scale responses to the environment. The consequent view of temperate deciduous forests (an important C[O.sub.2] sink) is that, first, ecosystem respiration is greater during the day than at night; and second, ecosystem photosynthetic light-use efficiency peaks after leaf expansion in spring and then declines (3), presumably because of leaf ageing or water stress. This view has underlain the development of terrestrial biosphere models used in climate prediction (4,5) and of remote sensing indices of global biosphere productivity (5,6). Here, we use new isotopic instrumentation (7) to determine ecosystem photosynthesis and daytime respiration (8) in a temperate deciduous forest over a three-year period. We find that ecosystem respiration is lower during the day than at night--the first robust evidence of the inhibition of leaf respiration by light (9-11) at the ecosystem scale. Because they do not capture this effect, standard approaches (12,13) overestimate ecosystem photosynthesis and daytime respiration in the first half of the growing season at our site, and inaccurately portray ecosystem photosynthetic light-use efficiency. These findings revise our understanding of forest-atmosphere carbon exchange, and provide a basis for investigating how leaf-level physiological dynamics manifest at the canopy scale in other ecosystems., Much of what has been inferred about the behaviour of ecosystem photosynthesis, or 'gross ecosystem production' (GEP, defined as ecosystem-scale photosynthesis minus photorespiration), and 'daytime ecosystem respiration' (DER) in forests [...]

An overview of the binary collision impact theory of spectral line shapes has been given to provide a unified statistical mechanical approach to line-shape theory, laser theory, nonlinear optics, and transport phenomena in dilute gases. The computation of spectral line profiles corresponding to those obtained from ultra-high-resolution spectral line-shape measurements requires numerical ab initio calculation of scattering amplitudes directly from the underlying dynamics of collisions between radiatively active molecules and their perturbers. The Wigner distribution function-density matrix is utilized to describe the kinetic theory of spectral line shapes and to discuss the various collisional processes that contribute to the kernel of kinetic equations. The influence of features of the potential energy surface on spectral parameters is also discussed, and the importance of comparing experimental line profiles directly with numerically computed line shapes obtained from reliable interaction potentials is emphasized. This contrasts sharply with the universal practice of comparing experimental line widths and shifts using some average or approximate theoretical scattering cross- sections and it contrasts sharply with fitting experimental profiles to some convenient analytical line-shape model; hence the phrase 'a paradigm shift' in the title of this work. PACS Nos.: 32.70.Jz, 33.20.-t, 33.70.Gj, 34.50.-s. Nous avons presente une revue de la theorie du profile de raies spectrales suite a des collisions binaires, de facon a developper une approche unifiee de mecanique statistique pour la theorie du profile de raie, l'optique non lineaire, la theorie des lasers et les phenomenes de transport dans les gaz dilues. Le calcul du profil des raies spectrales qui correspondent a ces mecanismes exige un calcul ab initio des amplitudes de diffusion directement a partir de la dynamique des collisions entre des molecules a impact radiatif et les mecanismes perturbateurs. Nous couplons la fonction de distribution de Wigner et la matrice de densite pour decrire la theorie cinetique du profile de raie spectrale et discuter les differents mecanismes de collision qui contribuent au noyau des equations cinetiques. Nous analysons egalement l'influence des particularites de la surface d'energie sur les parametres spectraux et nous insistons sur l'importance de comparer les profiles experimentaux de raie directement avec les profiles de raie calcules a partir de potentiels fiables. Ceci contraste nettement avec la pratique universelle ou on compare les valeurs experimentales des largeurs et deplacements de raie en utilisant des sections efficaces approximatives quelconques, theoriques ou moyennes et contraste nettement avec l'ajustement des profiles de raie experimentaux a une forme analytique commode; d'ou l'expression << un changement de paradigm >> dans le titre. [Traduit par la Redaction], 1. Introduction The impact theory of spectral line shapes has been around for about a century, beginning with the classical theory of Lorentz [1], and was essentially completed with the [...]

An infrared laser spectrometer based on difference-frequency generation in LiI[O.sub.3] is described. The spectrometer has a frequency uncertainty of less than 1 MHz and a signal-to-noise ratio between 3000:1 and 10,000:1. These properties allow the spectrometer to be used for studies of the non-Lorentzian and non-Voigt character of absorption line shapes in atmospheric trace gases. OCIS codes: 300.1030, 300.6190, 300.6320, 300.6340, 300.6360, 300.6390.