Search

A larch forest in eastern Siberia was characterized by the presence of two distinct storeys, the overstorey with a small leaf area index (LAI) and a dense understorey with a relatively large LAI. To understand the roles of the overstorey and understorey in forest-atmosphere water exchange, canopy conductance ( Gc), a critical parameter used in determining the energy and mass exchange, was calculated on the basis of latent heat flux above the overstorey and understorey, measured separately. Results showed that Gc for the overstorey ( Gco) and understorey ( Gcu) experienced different seasonal fluctuations. Gco was smaller than Gcu during periods of leaf expansion and leaf fall and showed an increasing trend until 1 month after the onset of leaf expansion. In contrast, a sharp decrease in Gco was observed immediately before onset of leaf fall. Furthermore, Gco was slightly larger than Gcu during the fully foliated period. A simple model using solar radiation and vapour pressure deficit ( D) as inputs successfully reproduced the Gc in fully foliated periods with acceptable accuracy. Furthermore, both the understorey and overstorey in this study have a large reference Gc ( Gc at D = 1 KPa) than their counterparts of other boreal forests and would not be able to sustain a constant leaf-soil water potential difference as D increases. We speculated that this confers the forest with an advantage allowing it to be able to sustain carbon assimilation during large D days and thus provides for the survival of the ecosystem during the short growing season at this site. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tree-ring chronologies of ring width and stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) over the past 160 years were developed using living larch trees at two forest sites, each with different annual precipitation, in eastern Siberia: Spasskaya Pad (SP) (62°14′N, 129°37′E); and Elgeeii (EG) (60°0′N, 133°49′E). Intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) was derived from tree-ring δ13C. The physiological responses of the larch trees to climate varied between these sites and over time. Ring widths correlated negatively with summer temperatures at SP, where summer precipitation is lower than at EG, probably due to temperature-induced water stress. Since the 1990s, however, the negative effect of warming has been more severe at EG, where the productivity of larch trees is higher than at SP. A greater reduction of larch tree growth and higher increase rate of iWUE at EG reflects greater temperature-induced water stress, which is incident to the larger forest biomass. Our results suggest that effect of increase in atmospheric CO2 on larch tree growth is not sufficient to compensate for temperature-induced water stress on larch growth in eastern Siberia and differences in precipitation and forest productivity largely affect the larch tree response to changing climate in eastern Siberia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the effect of recent eastern Siberian land surface changes, such as water surface expansion, on water-energy fluxes and precipitation and focused on land surface parameters using a three-dimensional atmospheric model [the Japan Meteorological Agency Nonhydrostatic model (JMA-NHM)]. Five parameters were set (viz., surface albedo, evaporative efficiency, roughness length, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity), and a response of evaporation and precipitation was evaluated. Increased precipitation corresponded to 75% of the increased evaporation on interparameter average, indicating strong land-atmosphere coupling. Water-energy flux and precipitation responses to water surface expansion were evaluated by two methods: JMA-NHM and the parameter sensitivity method. The latter method used a linear combination of parameter sensitivity on the fluxes and precipitation and parameter changes with land surface change. JMA-NHM demonstrated an increase in evaporation and precipitation and a decrease in downward shortwave radiation with low-level cloud increases. The parameter sensitivity method gave the same order as JMA-NHM in the estimation. This method has minimal calculation cost; thus, water-energy flux and precipitation response with further water surface expansion and decreases in forest area were simulated, producing various land surface data. The enhancement of the precipitation response to evaporation was weak for further water surface expansion in the largely expanded water surface area; however, the ratio increased dramatically for the small water surface expanding area, indicating intense water cycle enhancement at the beginning of water surface expansion. Although grassland formation from forest has minimal impact, if incoming downward shortwave radiation were to increase because of the disappearance of the forest shading effect and the water surface formed by permafrost melting, the water cycle would be enhanced intensely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a deciduous larch forest in eastern Siberia, the mean and standard deviation of the total evapotranspiration ( E) during May to September (day of year (DOY) = 121-274) for 2003-2006 were 181.5 and 26.4 mm, respectively. The interannual variation (IAV) in the total E was caused by the IAV in E for the canopy-foliated period (DOY = 164-253), not by the IAV in the dates of leaf expansion and leaf fall. For the years with higher total E, E in the canopy-foliated period was consistently higher, which corresponded to the higher soil water content in these years. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We measured evapotranspiration in an eastern Siberian boreal forest, in which the understory was cowberry and the overstory was larch, during the entire growing seasons of 2005 and 2006. We compared evapotranspiration from the understory vegetation above the forest floor E U with evapotranspiration from the whole ecosystem above the overstory canopy E O. The E U/E O ratio had a seasonal trend with a flat-bottomed U-shape during the growing season (4 May–30 September). High-E U/E O ratios at the beginning and end of the growing season were observed because larch, one of the two sources of E O, was a deciduous tree, while the understory was the evergreen cowberry. The mean daily E U values during the foliated period of larch (1 June–31 August) were 0.8 and 0.9mmday−1, or 51.4 and 51.8% of E O in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The understory vegetation was one of the most important components of the hydrologic cycle in this forest. A significant amount of E U was caused by plant physiological control, due to the aerodynamic conductance, which was much larger than the surface conductance, leading to a smaller decoupling coefficient. We found that 71% of E U was caused by the vapour pressure deficit above the forest floor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Water vapor, energy fluxes, and environmental conditions were measured in an eastern Siberian larch forest for 7 water years, from 1998 to 2006, to understand the water-balance characteristics and interannual variation (IAV). The latent heat flux accounted for 38–67% of the sum of turbulent heat fluxes in June, July, and August, a relatively moderate fraction was compared to values measured at mid- and low latitudes. More than 70% of the annual precipitation evaporated during May to September. Annual evapotranspiration, including interception loss, was relatively steady at 169–220mm compared with the wide range in annual precipitation (111–347mmyear−1). The evapotranspiration rate was 1.49–2.30mmday−1 on a daily basis from May to September above a dry canopy. This feature is one of the remarkable characteristics of the water balance in eastern Siberian forests. The thawing depth of the permafrost has been rapidly deepening since 2004, such that the maximal thawing depth varied from 127cm before 2003 to over 200cm after 2004. At the same time, there was a very large increase in the moisture content of the surface soil. This increase could not be explained by the amount of annual precipitation alone and may have been due to inflow from the deeper thawing layer. The IAV of evapotranspiration was small, but the yearly evapotranspiration coefficient (the ratio of evapotranspiration to potential evaporation) ranged from 0.30 to 0.45. These results indicate that the IAV of evapotranspiration is controlled by regulation of the land surface rather than by atmospheric demand. Soil-moisture content was the most important variable among the factors determining the evapotranspiration coefficient at an interannual temporal scale. This result differs somewhat from previous satellite-based findings that air temperature was a major variable for plant activity. This difference might result from the fact that the IAV of soil water content did not correspond to that of the precipitation amount because of the presence of the permafrost. By contrast, the soil water content was strongly affected by precipitation in the previous summer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For a larch forest site near Yakutsk, energy and water fluxes are estimated and their variations are investigated using a one-dimensional land surface model with daily routine data. The estimation period is 1986-2000, including the period before the start of tower observation (1997) on the left bank of the Lena River. The land surface model includes three submodels: vegetation, snow cover, and soil. The model can calculate water and energy fluxes above and within the forest if meteorological data over the forest are given as input. Data used in this study are Baseline Meteorological Data in Siberia (BMDS) Version 3. This set comprises daily data of main meteorological elements. The procedure is as follows: (1) preparation of equations between routine Yakutsk data and larch tower data; (2) estimation of past meteorological data over the taiga using those equations; and (3) estimation of fluxes using the one-dimensional model. The date of leaf-out start is parameterized with soil temperature and accumulated air temperature. It corresponds to the green-up time obtained from satellite normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data. Estimated monthly deviation of net radiation, Rn is 10 Wm-2, its maximum is 20 Wm-2. The monthly deviation of latent heat flux, LE, is less than 12 Wm-2. Its warm season average is less than 7 Wm -2. Although the magnitude of LE is almost zero in December and January, and several Wm-2 aside from these 2 months, the sensible heat flux, H, sometimes becomes negative during the cold season. The variation of evapotranspiration is considerably smaller than that of precipitation. The evapotranspiration (E) normalized by potential evaporation (Ep), E/Ep is 0.37 0-44 in the warm season; it tends to be large when leaf-out starts early. The amount of evapotranspiration in the warm season can be estimated from Ep within an error of 5 mm using this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water and energy exchanges are evaluated for two larch forests, one pine forest, and one grassland area in eastern Siberia near Yakutsk using a one-dimensional land surface model. Diurnal and seasonal variations of fluxes are simulated reasonably with general stomatal parameters at all sites. In the grassland site, the Bowen ratio is 0.2 in midsummer; it is smaller than that in forest sites (about 1). Sensitivity tests indicate that leaf area should be given accurately along with total plant area index including stem and branch areas. If both plant and leaf areas are given, the outline of seasonal heat balance can be simulated using the same stomatal parameters for forests and grassland sites with the model. In the larch site on the left bank of the Lena River, although input precipitation varies widely from 82 to 236 mm year to year from 1998 through 2000, calculated total evapotranspiration varies only within a range of 50 mm around 238 mm in the larch site. Understory evapotranspiration contributes 37%–44% to total evapotranspiration; interception is 15%–21% of precipitation. Evapotranspiration normalized by potential evaporation is 0.37 for larch sites almost independent of year; for grassland it is 0.52. At some sites, evapotranspiration in the warm season exceeds precipitation, thereby implying either a warm-season depletion of water storage in the soil column (most likely melted water from the thawing of the soil) or a horizontal transport of subsurface melt water from neighboring areas, or both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX)-Asian Monsoon Experiment (GAME). GEWEX was conducted under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Program and was led by Professor Yasunari from Japan. GAME research focused on water and energy cycles of Eurasia. Intensive field work carried out in eastern Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau, Central China, and Thailand has resulted in new insights into hydrological and meteorological processes. The papers in this issue focus on the hydrological characteristics of the GAME region.

Boreal forests play an important role in the global balance of energy and CO2. Our previous study of elaborate eddy covariance observations in a Siberian boreal larch forest, conducted both above the forest canopy and at the forest floor, revealed a significant contribution of latent heat flux (LE) from the cowberry understory to the whole ecosystem LE. Thus, in the present study, we examined what factors control the partitioning of whole ecosystem LE and CO2 flux into the understory and overstory vegetation, using detailed leaf-level physiology (for both understory and overstory vegetation) and soil respiration property measurements as well as a multilayer soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model. The modeling results showed that the larch overstory's leaf area index (LAI) and vertical profile of leaf photosynthetic capacity were major factors determining the flux partitioning in this boreal forest ecosystem. This is unlike other forest ecosystems that tend to have dense LAI. We concluded that control of the larch overstory's LAI had a relationship with both the coexistence of the larch with the cowberry understory and with the water resources available to the total forest ecosystem. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To elucidate the energy balance over a forest, seasonal changes in the water and energy exchanges over a young larch forest (E-YL) in eastern Siberia were investigated and compared with the reported characteristics of a mature larch forest (W-ML) in the same region. Observations of the energy fluxes were conducted during the growing season from 15 April through 14 September 2000. The sum of the turbulent heat fluxes H and λE, ground heat flux G and heat storage change rate ΔS was generally in good agreement with the net radiation flux R NET, except when the friction velocity u * was <0.2ms−1. Atmospheric instability also reduced the energy balance ratio EBR in the daytime. The EBR was defined as the ratio of the turbulent heat flux H + λE toward the available energy input R NET − G −ΔS for the reference horizontal plane, whereas the energy closure fraction CF was defined as the ratio of the net ecosystem heat exchange H + λE +ΔS atmosphere to the available energy input R NET − G −ΔS biomass for the biomass surface. EBR and CF had different features in their relationship to u * at night. The threshold to reject nighttime data at low u * values was estimated to be 0.2ms−1 by the EBR, but >0.3ms−1 by the CF. The averaged features of the CF relationships with u * and atmospheric stability ζ were similar to those reported for Canadian boreal forests. In contrast, hourly CF and hourly EBR were widely scattered. The probability functions of EBR for different wind velocities were consistent with previous results from large eddy simulation. To determine the seasonal course of daily flux values, the Bowen ratio energy budget method was used to estimate the turbulent heat fluxes. The daily latent heat flux maintained a value of approximately 50Wm−2 during the summer, whereas the daily sensible heat flux varied with changes in the available energy. The Bowen ratio had a clear “U” shape over the course of the growing season. The minimum values of approximately 1.0 occurred in the summer from June to August. The general features of seasonal changes at E-YL in 2000 were similar to those at W-ML in 1998, except for the lower Bowen ratio in August at E-YL. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Spatio-temporal variations in the energy budget and evapotranspiration (ET) in eastern Siberia were examined for a period of 19 years, from 1986 to 2004, for the Lena and Kolyma watersheds, which are underlain by permafrost. The energy budget and ET were calculated with a land surface model [Yamazaki, T., Yabuki, H., Ishii, Y., Ohta, T., Ohata, T., 2004. Water and energy exchanges at forests and a grassland in eastern Siberia evaluated using a one-dimensional land surface model. J. Hydrometeol. 5, 504–515] that considered vegetation, snow, and soil processes. Station data were used to compile gridded time series of forcing data. The spatial distribution of the energy budget showed that the latent heat flux (Q E) was a significant term in the surface energy budget in forested regions, while the sensible heat (Q H) was significant in the tundra region. A similar result was also obtained for the seasonal variation; in the Kolyma watershed, for instance, Q H dominated the seasonal energy budget, even during the growing season. In the Lena watershed, 53% of precipitation (P G) was lost through ET, which occurred during a very sharply pronounced growing season. Transpiration (E T) was a major component of ET in the Lena watershed, while in the Kolyma watershed, evaporation from the forest floor (E S) was dominant. This suggested clear relations between the energy budget and the difference in land surface and climate. In the Lena and Kolyma watersheds, a time series of P G exhibited strong annual variations with an increasing trend during 1986–2004. ET also exhibited an increasing trend in the two watersheds. However, the interannual variation was weaker than that of P G, reflecting the influence of extensive permafrost in the area. The ET components also showed an increasing trend. In contrast, E S decreased during 1986–2004, the trend of E S thus being inversely correlated to that of P G. Interestingly, annual ET also exhibited an inverse correlation with P G in the Lena and Kolyma watersheds, although this relationship was weak. In contrast, ET displayed a strong correlation with air temperature (T a) and the timing of the disappearance of snow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]