Abstract. Understanding the interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere is key to model boundary-layer meteorology and cloud formation, as well as carbon cycling and crop yield. In this study we explore these interactions in the exchange of water, heat, and CO2 in a cropland–atmosphere system at the diurnal and local scale. We thereto couple an atmospheric mixed-layer model (MXL) to two land-surface schemes, developed from two different perspectives: while one land-surface scheme (A-gs) simulates vegetation from an atmospheric point of view, the other (GECROS) simulates vegetation from a carbon-storage point of view. We calculate surface fluxes of heat, moisture and carbon, as well as the resulting atmospheric state and boundary-layer dynamics, over a maize field in the Netherlands, for a day on which we have a rich set of observations available. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the role of upper atmosphere conditions like subsidence, in comparison to the role of surface forcings like soil moisture. We show that the atmospheric-oriented model (MXL-A-gs) outperforms the carbon storage-oriented model (MXL-GECROS) on this diurnal scale. This performance strongly depends on the sensitivity of the modelled stomatal conductance to water stress, which is implemented differently in each model. This sensitivity also influences the magnitude of the surface fluxes of CO2, water and heat (surface control), and subsequently impacts the boundary-layer growth and entrainment fluxes (upper atmosphere control), which alter the atmospheric state. These findings suggest that observed CO2 mole fractions in the boundary layer can reflect strong influences of both the surface and upper atmospheric conditions, and the interpretation of CO2 mole fraction variations depends on the assumed land-surface coupling. We illustrate this with a sensitivity analysis where increased subsidence, typical for periods of drought, can induce a change of 12 ppm in atmospheric CO2 mole fractions, solely by decreasing the boundary-layer volume. The effect of such high subsidence on the Bowen ratio is of the same magnitude as induced by the depletion of soil moisture that would typically occur during a corresponding drought event. Correctly including such two-way land-surface interactions on the diurnal scale can thus potentially improve our understanding and interpretation of observed variations in atmospheric CO2, as well as improve crop yield forecasts by better describing the water loss and carbon gain.
Two perspectives on the coupled carbon, water, and energy exchange in the planetary boundary layer