scholarly journals Radiometric Method for Determining Canopy Stomatal Conductance in Controlled Environments

Agronomy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Monje ◽  
Bruce Bugbee

Canopy stomatal conductance is a key physiological factor controlling transpiration from plant canopies, but it is extremely difficult to determine in field environments. The objective of this study was to develop a radiometric method for calculating canopy stomatal conductance for two plant species—wheat and soybean from direct measurements of bulk surface conductance to water vapor and the canopy aerodynamic conductance in controlled-environment chambers. The chamber provides constant net radiation, temperature, humidity, and ventilation rate to the plant canopy. In this method, stepwise changes in chamber CO2 alter canopy temperature, latent heat, and sensible heat fluxes simultaneously. Sensible heat and the radiometric canopy-to-air temperature difference are computed from direct measurements of net radiation, canopy transpiration, photosynthesis, radiometric temperature, and air temperature. The canopy aerodynamic conductance to the transfer of water vapor is then determined from a plot of sensible heat versus radiometric canopy-to-air temperature difference. Finally, canopy stomatal conductance is calculated from canopy surface and aerodynamic conductances. The canopy aerodynamic conductance was 5.5 mol m−2 s−1 in wheat and 2.5 mol m−2 s−1 in soybean canopies. At 400 umol mol−1 of CO2 and 86 kPa atmospheric pressure, canopy stomatal conductances were 2.1 mol m−2 s−1 for wheat and 1.1 mol m−2 s−1 for soybean, comparable to canopy stomatal conductances reported in field studies. This method measures canopy aerodynamic conductance in controlled-environment chambers where the log-wind profile approximation does not apply and provides an improved technique for measuring canopy-level responses of canopy stomatal conductance and the decoupling coefficient. The method was used to determine the response of canopy stomatal conductance to increased CO2 concentration and to determine the sensitivity of canopy transpiration to changes in canopy stomatal conductance. These responses are useful for improving the prediction of ecosystem-level water fluxes in response to climatic variables.

1984 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 122-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sato ◽  
S. Takahashi ◽  
R. Naruse ◽  
G. Wakahama

A good correlation was found between the ablation of snow and degree day index (cumulative values of positive daily mean air temperature) during the summer of 1978 on the Yukikabe snow patch in the Daisetsu mountains, central Hokkaido. The volume change of the snow patch in the ablation season of any year can hence be estimated from air temperature using this relationship. Each of the heat-balance terms controlling the ablation is evaluated separately by using empirical equations and assumed values for meteorological parameters at the snow patch. Triangular diagrams are constructed in order to illustrate the relative contributions of sensible heat, latent heat, and net radiation, the main three heat sources. A higher contribution from sensible and latent heat is found for the snow patches of Japan than for many glaciers and ice caps elsewhere. This may be due to higher mid-summer air temperatures than in other glaciated parts of the world.


1981 ◽  
Vol 27 (97) ◽  
pp. 381-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger J. Braithwaite

AbstractThe paper tries to reconcile the facts that there are often useful correlations between ablation or run-off and air temperature while net radiation is usually the major source of ablation energy. Equations are derived from the energy balance to describe statistics for the ablation-temperature relation in terms of statistics for the relations between individual energy fluxes and air temperature. As examples, statistics are evaluated for four published series from Arctic Canada. Although the net radiation is the largest energy source in all four cases, the ablation rate is moderately well correlated with temperature and poorly correlated with net radiation. This is because the sensible heat flux is more variable than the radiation in three cases and is itself better correlated with temperature in all four cases. The major contributions to the increase of ablation rate with temperature (on average 6.3 kg m−2d−1deg−1) are due to sensible heat, followed by latent heat with a small contribution from net radiation. The resulting ablation-temperature model explains about half the variance of ablation rate. The main application of such a simple model is for the estimation of ablation totals in areas where glaciological and hydrological data are sparse.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wehr ◽  
Róisín Commane ◽  
J. William Munger ◽  
J. Barry McManus ◽  
David D. Nelson ◽  
...  

Abstract. Stomatal conductance influences both photosynthesis and transpiration, thereby coupling the carbon and water cycles and affecting surface–atmosphere energy exchange. The environmental response of stomatal conductance has been measured mainly on the leaf scale, and theoretical canopy models are relied on to upscale stomatal conductance for application in terrestrial ecosystem models and climate prediction. Here we estimate stomatal conductance and associated transpiration in a temperate deciduous forest directly on the canopy scale via two independent approaches: (i) from heat and water vapor exchange and (ii) from carbonyl sulfide (OCS) uptake. We use the eddy covariance method to measure the net ecosystem–atmosphere exchange of OCS, and we use a flux-gradient approach to separate canopy OCS uptake from soil OCS uptake. We find that the seasonal and diurnal patterns of canopy stomatal conductance obtained by the two approaches agree (to within ±6 % diurnally), validating both methods. Canopy stomatal conductance increases linearly with above-canopy light intensity (in contrast to the leaf scale, where stomatal conductance shows declining marginal increases) and otherwise depends only on the diffuse light fraction, the canopy-average leaf-to-air water vapor gradient, and the total leaf area. Based on stomatal conductance, we partition evapotranspiration (ET) and find that evaporation increases from 0 to 40 % of ET as the growing season progresses, driven primarily by rising soil temperature and secondarily by rainfall. Counterintuitively, evaporation peaks at the time of year when the soil is dry and the air is moist. Our method of ET partitioning avoids concerns about mismatched scales or measurement types because both ET and transpiration are derived from eddy covariance data. Neither of the two ecosystem models tested predicts the observed dynamics of evaporation or transpiration, indicating that ET partitioning such as that provided here is needed to further model development and improve our understanding of carbon and water cycling.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (107) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Ambach

AbstractData of the heat balance measured during EGIG 1959 and 1967 are applied to calculate the shift in equilibrium line due to climatic changes. The analysis follows Kuhn’s algorithm by determining from the data: (i) response of the net radiation balance due to changes in air temperature, cloudiness, and albedo, (ii) the response of the sensible heat flux due to changes in air temperature, (iii) the altitudinal gradients of air temperature and cumulative accumulation, (iv) the duration of the ablation season, and (v) the significance of superimposed ice. The shift of the equilibrium line due to changes in cloudiness is negligible compared to that which is caused by changes in temperature. The formation of superimposed ice, however, influences the result considerably. The shift of the equilibrium line amounts to +77 m K−1 at constant cloudiness and –4 m per 1/10 cloudiness at constant temperature.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (107) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Ambach

AbstractData of the heat balance measured during EGIG 1959 and 1967 are applied to calculate the shift in equilibrium line due to climatic changes. The analysis follows Kuhn’s algorithm by determining from the data: (i) response of the net radiation balance due to changes in air temperature, cloudiness, and albedo, (ii) the response of the sensible heat flux due to changes in air temperature, (iii) the altitudinal gradients of air temperature and cumulative accumulation, (iv) the duration of the ablation season, and (v) the significance of superimposed ice. The shift of the equilibrium line due to changes in cloudiness is negligible compared to that which is caused by changes in temperature. The formation of superimposed ice, however, influences the result considerably. The shift of the equilibrium line amounts to +77 m K−1at constant cloudiness and –4 m per 1/10 cloudiness at constant temperature.


1984 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 122-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sato ◽  
S. Takahashi ◽  
R. Naruse ◽  
G. Wakahama

A good correlation was found between the ablation of snow and degree day index (cumulative values of positive daily mean air temperature) during the summer of 1978 on the Yukikabe snow patch in the Daisetsu mountains, central Hokkaido. The volume change of the snow patch in the ablation season of any year can hence be estimated from air temperature using this relationship. Each of the heat-balance terms controlling the ablation is evaluated separately by using empirical equations and assumed values for meteorological parameters at the snow patch. Triangular diagrams are constructed in order to illustrate the relative contributions of sensible heat, latent heat, and net radiation, the main three heat sources. A higher contribution from sensible and latent heat is found for the snow patches of Japan than for many glaciers and ice caps elsewhere. This may be due to higher mid-summer air temperatures than in other glaciated parts of the world.


1981 ◽  
Vol 27 (97) ◽  
pp. 381-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger J. Braithwaite

AbstractThe paper tries to reconcile the facts that there are often useful correlations between ablation or run-off and air temperature while net radiation is usually the major source of ablation energy. Equations are derived from the energy balance to describe statistics for the ablation-temperature relation in terms of statistics for the relations between individual energy fluxes and air temperature. As examples, statistics are evaluated for four published series from Arctic Canada. Although the net radiation is the largest energy source in all four cases, the ablation rate is moderately well correlated with temperature and poorly correlated with net radiation. This is because the sensible heat flux is more variable than the radiation in three cases and is itself better correlated with temperature in all four cases. The major contributions to the increase of ablation rate with temperature (on average 6.3 kg m−2 d−1 deg−1) are due to sensible heat, followed by latent heat with a small contribution from net radiation. The resulting ablation-temperature model explains about half the variance of ablation rate. The main application of such a simple model is for the estimation of ablation totals in areas where glaciological and hydrological data are sparse.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wehr ◽  
Róisín Commane ◽  
J. William Munger ◽  
J. Barry McManus ◽  
David D. Nelson ◽  
...  

Abstract. Stomatal conductance influences both photosynthesis and transpiration, thereby coupling the carbon and water cycles and affecting surface-atmosphere energy exchange. The environmental response of stomatal conductance has been measured mainly at the leaf scale, and theoretical canopy models are relied on to upscale stomatal conductance for application in terrestrial ecosystem models and climate prediction. Here we estimate stomatal conductance and associated transpiration in a temperate deciduous forest directly at the canopy scale via two independent approaches: (i) from heat and water vapor exchange, and (ii) from carbonyl sulfide (OCS) uptake. We use the eddy covariance method to measure the net ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of OCS, and we use a flux-gradient approach to separate canopy OCS uptake from soil OCS uptake. We find that the seasonal and diurnal patterns of canopy stomatal conductance obtained by the two approaches agree (to within ±6 % diurnally), validating both methods. Canopy stomatal conductance increases linearly with above-canopy light intensity (in contrast to the leaf scale, where stomatal conductance shows declining marginal increases), and otherwise depends only on the diffuse light fraction, the canopy-average leaf-to-air water vapor gradient, and the total leaf area. Based on stomatal conductance, we partition evapotranspiration (ET) and find that evaporation increases from 0 % to 40 % of ET as the growing season progresses, driven primarily by rising soil temperature and secondarily by rainfall. Counter-intuitively, evaporation peaks at the time of year when the soil is dry and the air is moist. Our method of ET partitioning relies minimally on modeling and avoids concerns about mismatched scales or measurement types because both ET and transpiration are derived from eddy covariance data. Neither of two ecosystem models tested predicts the observed dynamics of evaporation or transpiration, indicating that ET partitioning such as that provided here is needed to further model development and improve our understanding of carbon and water cycling.


1990 ◽  
Vol 36 (123) ◽  
pp. 217-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger J. Braithwaite ◽  
Ole B. Olesen

AbstractDaily ice ablation on two outlet glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet, Nordbogletscher (1979–83) and Qamanârssûp sermia (1980–86), is related to air temperature by a linear regression equation. Analysis of this ablation-temperature equation with the help of a simple energy-balance model shows that sensible-heat flux has the greatest temperature response and accounts for about one-half of the temperature response of ablation. Net radiation accounts for about one-quarter of the temperature response of ablation, and latent-heat flux and errors account for the remainder. The temperature response of sensible-heat flux at QQamanârssûp sermia is greater than at Nordbogletscher mainly due to higher average wind speeds. The association of high winds with high temperatures during Föhn events further increases sensible-heat flux. The energy-balance model shows that ablation from a snow surface is only about half that from an ice surface at the same air temperature.


BMC Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan C. Baca Cabrera ◽  
Regina T. Hirl ◽  
Rudi Schäufele ◽  
Andy Macdonald ◽  
Hans Schnyder

Abstract Background The anthropogenic increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration (ca) is impacting carbon (C), water, and nitrogen (N) cycles in grassland and other terrestrial biomes. Plant canopy stomatal conductance is a key player in these coupled cycles: it is a physiological control of vegetation water use efficiency (the ratio of C gain by photosynthesis to water loss by transpiration), and it responds to photosynthetic activity, which is influenced by vegetation N status. It is unknown if the ca-increase and climate change over the last century have already affected canopy stomatal conductance and its links with C and N processes in grassland. Results Here, we assessed two independent proxies of (growing season-integrating canopy-scale) stomatal conductance changes over the last century: trends of δ18O in cellulose (δ18Ocellulose) in archived herbage from a wide range of grassland communities on the Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted (U.K.) and changes of the ratio of yields to the CO2 concentration gradient between the atmosphere and the leaf internal gas space (ca – ci). The two proxies correlated closely (R2 = 0.70), in agreement with the hypothesis. In addition, the sensitivity of δ18Ocellulose changes to estimated stomatal conductance changes agreed broadly with published sensitivities across a range of contemporary field and controlled environment studies, further supporting the utility of δ18Ocellulose changes for historical reconstruction of stomatal conductance changes at Park Grass. Trends of δ18Ocellulose differed strongly between plots and indicated much greater reductions of stomatal conductance in grass-rich than dicot-rich communities. Reductions of stomatal conductance were connected with reductions of yield trends, nitrogen acquisition, and nitrogen nutrition index. Although all plots were nitrogen-limited or phosphorus- and nitrogen-co-limited to different degrees, long-term reductions of stomatal conductance were largely independent of fertilizer regimes and soil pH, except for nitrogen fertilizer supply which promoted the abundance of grasses. Conclusions Our data indicate that some types of temperate grassland may have attained saturation of C sink activity more than one century ago. Increasing N fertilizer supply may not be an effective climate change mitigation strategy in many grasslands, as it promotes the expansion of grasses at the disadvantage of the more CO2 responsive forbs and N-fixing legumes.


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