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We investigated inter-annual variation of canopy CO exchange (NEE) and evapotranspiration during a 7-year period over a lowland Dipterocarp forest in Pasoh, Peninsular Malaysia, using the eddy covariance method. Annual rainfall fluctuated between 1,451 and 2,235 mm during this period. Annual evapotranspiration estimated by energy budget correction and gap filling using the relationship between latent heat and available energy was 1,287 ± 52 mm. Despite inter-annual variation in rainfall, annual evapotranspiration was stable, except for a slight decrease in the driest year (2009). Evapotranspiration was roughly related to the amount of available energy, but was regulated by stomatal closure to prevent excessive water loss at high vapour pressure deficit. Even during dry periods, no significant decrease in evapotranspiration occurred, as water was supplied from soil layers deeper than 0.5 m. Ecosystem respiration (RE) increased with soil water content. Daytime NEE was also stable during the 7 years, despite climate variability. Afternoon inhibition of canopy photosynthesis was seen every month. Daytime NEE did not become more negative with increasing solar radiation, or with increasing soil water content. During dry periods, gross primary production (GPP) and thus canopy gross photosynthesis decreased slightly, coupled with decreased daytime RE. In this forest, variability in rainfall pattern resulted in seasonal and inter-annual variability in micrometeorology; evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, and RE responded to these changes, and compensated for each other and/or other components of micrometeorology, resulting in rather stable annual evapotranspiration and NEE, even during a very dry year associated with an El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient CO2 concentration, air temperature and relative humidity were measured intermittently for a 3-year period from the floor to the canopy top of a tropical rainforest in Pasoh, Peninsular Malaysia. Mean diurnal CO2 storage flux ( Sc; μmol m−2 s−1) and sensible and latent heat storage fluxes ( Qa and Qw; W m−2) ranged from −12.7 to 3.2 μmol m−2 s−1, −15 to 27 W m−2 and −10 to 20 W m−2, respectively. Small differences in diurnal changes were observed in Sc and Qa between the driest and wettest periods. Compared with the ranges of mean diurnal CO2 eddy flux (−14.7 to 4.9 μmol m−2 s−1), sensible eddy flux (−12 to 169 W m−2) and latent eddy flux (0 to 250 W m−2), the contribution of CO2 storage flux was especially large. Comparison with summertime data from a temperate Japanese cypress forest suggested a higher contribution of Sc in the tropical rainforest, probably mainly due to the difference in nighttime friction velocity at the sites. On the other hand, differences in Qa and Qw were smaller than the difference in Sc, probably because of the smaller nighttime sinks/sources of heat and water vapour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The eddy covariance method was used to observe carbon dioxide flux (F c) for 3 years over an old-growth tropical rainforest at Pasoh in Peninsular Malaysia. The average nighttime F c and NEE were 3.6 and 4.7μmolm−2 s−1, respectively, when friction velocity (u * )≥0.2, while the average soil respiration rate measured occasionally with the chamber method was estimated to be 4.1μmolm−2 s−1 if we used the relationship between volumetric soil water content, or 3.8μmolm−2 s−1 if we used the pure average of nine observations. The comparison of F c, NEE and soil respiration strongly suggests that nighttime CO2 efflux was underestimated even when the CO2 storage term is considered. The correction of F c data for low u * did not correct this underestimate, and it was strongly suggested that this forest was not a strong carbon sink, as raw F c data, even with the u * filtering, implied. Monthly average daytime diurnal changes in CO2 exchange over the canopy were fairly constant from 2003 to 2005 despite fluctuations in soil moisture, solar radiation, air temperature and vapor pressure deficit between dry and wet periods. An obvious inhibition of canopy CO2 exchange in the afternoon coupling with increases in VPD and air temperature was observed year-round. In the case of nighttime NEE, a slight increase in wet period was observed. Diurnal pattern of CO2 exchange revealed that obvious restriction of canopy photosynthesis in the afternoon was occurred in this forest irrespective of soil moisture. Seasonal and annual patterns of CO2 exchange reveal that one of the main causes which induce the difference in NEE pattern between Amazonian and Southeast Asian rainforests was not the difference in daytime photosynthesis but the difference in ecosystem respiration related with dry and rainy seasons. The decrease of CO2 uptake (increase of NEE) at wet period was also observed at this site, but did not form an obvious seasonality such as in Amazonian forests. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We observed diurnal and seasonal patterns of leaf-scale gas exchange within the crown of a Dipterocarpus sublamellatus Foxw. tree growing in a lowland dipterocarp forest at Pasoh, Peninsular Malaysia. Observations were carried out nine times over 6 years, from September 2002 to December 2007. Observation periods included both wet and mild-dry periods, and natural and saturated photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) light conditions. In situ measurements of the diurnal change in net photosynthetic rate and in stomatal conductance were carried out on canopy leaves of a 40-m-tall D. sublamellatus tree, which was accessed from a canopy corridor. A diurnal change in electron transport rate was observed under saturated PPFD conditions. The maximum net assimilation rate was approximately 10 micromol m(-2) s(-1). There was a clear inhibition of the net assimilation rate coupled with stomatal closure after late morning and this inhibition occurred year-round. Although the electron transport rate decreased alongside this inhibition, it sometimes followed on. Numerical analysis showed that the main factor in the inhibition of the net assimilation rate was patchy bimodal stomatal closure, which occurred in both mild-dry and wet periods. The midday depression occurred year-round, though there are fluctuations in soil moisture during the mild-dry and wet periods. The magnitude of the inhibition was not related to soil water content but was related to vapor pressure deficit (VPD): that is, whether the days were sunny and hot or cloudy and cool. On cloudy, cool days in the wet period, the net photosynthesis was only moderately inhibited, but it still decreased in the afternoon and was coupled with patchy stomatal closure, even in quite moderate VPD, leaf temperature and PPFD conditions. Our results suggest that patchy stomatal closure signaled by the increase in VPD, in transpiration and by circadian rhythms, was the key factor in constraining midday leaf gas exchange of the D. sublamellatus canopy leaves.