ALBERT

Description: Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is used as a tracer of CO2 exchange at the ecosystem and larger scales. The robustness of this approach depends on knowledge of the soil contribution to the ecosystem fluxes, which is uncertain at present. We assessed the spatial and temporal variations in soil COS and CO2 fluxes in a Mediterranean citrus orchard combining surface flux chambers and soil concentration gradients. The spatial heterogeneity in soil COS exchange indicated net uptake below and between trees of up to 4.6 pmol m−2 s−1 and net emission in sun-exposed soil between rows of up to 2.6 pmol m−2 s−1, with an overall mean uptake value of 1.1±0.1 pmol m−2 s−1. Soil COS concentrations decreased with soil depth from atmospheric levels of ∼450 to ∼100 ppt at 20 cm depth, while CO2 concentrations increased from ∼400 to ∼5000 ppm. COS flux estimates from the soil concentration gradients were, on average, -1.0±0.3 pmol m−2 s−1, consistent with the chamber measurements. A soil COS flux algorithm driven by soil moisture and temperature (5 cm depth) and distance from the nearest tree, could explain 75 % of variance in soil COS flux. Soil relative uptake, the normalized ratio of COS to CO2 fluxes was, on average, -0.4±0.3 and showed a general exponential response to soil temperature. The results indicated that soil COS fluxes at our study site were dominated by uptake, with relatively small net fluxes compared to both soil respiration and reported canopy COS fluxes. Such a result should facilitate the application of COS as a powerful tracer of ecosystem CO2 exchange.

Description: The role of secondary circulations has recently been studied in the context of well-defined surface heterogeneity in a semiarid ecosystem where it was found that energy balance closure over a desert–forest system and the structure of the boundary layer was impacted by advection and flux divergence. As a part of the CliFF (“Climate feedbacks and benefits of semi-arid forests”, a collaboration between KIT, Germany, and the Weizmann Institute, Israel) campaign, we studied the boundary layer dynamics and turbulent transport of energy corresponding to this effect in Yatir Forest situated in the Negev Desert in Israel. The forest surrounded by small shrubs presents a distinct feature of surface heterogeneity, allowing us to study the differences between their interactions with the atmosphere above by conducting measurements with two eddy covariance (EC) stations and two Doppler lidars. As expected, the turbulence intensity and vertical fluxes of momentum and sensible heat are found to be higher above the forest compared to the shrubland. Turbulent statistics indicative of nonlocal motions are also found to differ over the forest and shrubland and also display a strong diurnal cycle. The production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) over the forest is strongly mechanical, while buoyancy effects generate most of the TKE over the shrubland. Overall TKE production is much higher above the forest compared to the shrubland. The forest is also found to be more efficient in dissipating TKE. The TKE budget appears to be balanced on average both for the forest and shrubland, although the imbalance of the TKE budget, which includes the role of TKE transport, is found to be quite different in terms of diurnal cycles for the forest and shrubland. The difference in turbulent quantities and the relationships between the components of TKE budget are used to infer the characteristics of the turbulent transport of energy between the desert and the forest.

Description: For the past decade, observations of carbonyl sulfide (OCS or COS) have been investigated as a proxy for carbon uptake by plants. OCS is destroyed by enzymes that interact with CO2 during photosynthesis, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA) and RuBisCO, where CA is the more important. The majority of sources of OCS to the atmosphere are geographically separated from this large plant sink, whereas the sources and sinks of CO2 are co-located in ecosystems. The drawdown of OCS can therefore be related to the uptake of CO2 without the added complication of co-located emissions comparable in magnitude. Here we review the state of our understanding of the global OCS cycle and its applications to ecosystem carbon cycle science. OCS uptake is correlated well to plant carbon uptake, especially at the regional scale. OCS can be used in conjunction with other independent measures of ecosystem function, like solar-induced fluorescence and carbon and water isotope studies. More work needs to be done to generate global coverage for OCS observations and to link this powerful atmospheric tracer to systems where fundamental questions concerning the carbon and water cycle remain.

Description: Estimations of ecosystem-level evapotranspiration (ET) and CO2 uptake in water-limited environments are scarce and scaling up ground-level measurements is not straightforward. A biophysical approach was previously proposed for ecosystem-level assessment relying on vegetation index and meteorological data (RS-Met) in temperate Mediterranean ecosystems. However, these RS-Met models have not been tested yet in extreme high-energy water-limited ecosystems that suffer from continuous stress conditions. Owing to the lack of ET and CO2 flux estimations in the Eastern Mediterranean, we examined the RS-Met approach using a newly developed mobile lab system and the single active Fluxnet station operating in this region, in seven forest and non-forest sites across a climatic transect in Israel (280–770 mm y−1). The RS-Met models were used with and without the addition of a seasonal drought stress factor (fDS), which was based on daily rainfall, temperature and radiation data. Results show that the RS-Met models with the inclusion of the fDS were significantly improved compared to the non-fDS models (r=0.64–0.91 compared to 0.05–0.80; P=0.06 and r=0.72–0.92 compared to r=0.56–0.90; P〈0.01 for ET and GPP, respectively). These, successfully tracked observed seasonal changes in ET and GPP across sites (ETMOD=0.94×ETEC+0.28; r=0.82; MAE=0.54 mm d−1; N=243 d, and GPPMOD = 0.99×GPPEC + 0.51; r=0.86; MAE=1.03 gC m−2 d−1; N=252 d). Modeled ET and GPP also agreed well with eddy covariance estimates at the annual timescale in the Fluxnet station located in the dryland pine forest of Yatir (266±61 vs. 257±58 mm y−1 and 765±112 vs. 748±124 gC m−2 y−1 for ET and GPP, respectively). Using the RS-Met models, we were able to show the effect of afforestation on water vapor and CO2 fluxes in this region. Afforestation was responsible for a significant increase in water use efficiency (WUE) with positive effect decreasing when moving from dry to more humid environments, strengthening the importance of drylands afforestation. This simple but yet robust biophysical approach show a promise for reliable ecosystem-level estimations of ET and CO2 uptake in extreme high-energy water-limited environments when adjusting for drought stress effects.

Description: Estimations of ecosystem-level evapotranspiration (ET) and CO2 uptake in water-limited environments are scarce and scaling up ground-level measurements is not straightforward. A biophysical approach using remote sensing (RS) and meteorological data (RS–Met) is adjusted to extreme high-energy water-limited Mediterranean ecosystems that suffer from continuous stress conditions to provide daily estimations of ET and CO2 uptake (measured as gross primary production, GPP) at a spatial resolution of 250 m. The RS–Met was adjusted using a seasonal water deficit factor (fWD) based on daily rainfall, temperature and radiation data. We validated our adjusted RS–Met with eddy covariance flux measurements using a newly developed mobile lab system and the single active FLUXNET station operating in this region (Yatir pine forest station) at a total of seven forest and non-forest sites across a climatic transect in Israel (280–770 mm yr−1). RS–Met was also compared to the satellite-borne MODIS-based ET and GPP products (MOD16 and MOD17, respectively) at these sites.Results show that the inclusion of the fWD significantly improved the model, with R =  0.64–0.91 for the ET-adjusted model (compared to 0.05–0.80 for the unadjusted model) and R =  0.72–0.92 for the adjusted GPP model (compared to R =  0.56–0.90 of the non-adjusted model). The RS–Met (with the fWD) successfully tracked observed changes in ET and GPP between dry and wet seasons across the sites. ET and GPP estimates from the adjusted RS–Met also agreed well with eddy covariance estimates on an annual timescale at the FLUXNET station of Yatir (266 ± 61 vs. 257 ± 58 mm yr−1 and 765 ± 112 vs. 748 ± 124 gC m−2 yr−1 for ET and GPP, respectively). Comparison with MODIS products showed consistently lower estimates from the MODIS-based models, particularly at the forest sites. Using the adjusted RS–Met, we show that afforestation significantly increased the water use efficiency (the ratio of carbon uptake to ET) in this region, with the positive effect decreasing when moving from dry to more humid environments, strengthening the importance of drylands afforestation. This simple yet robust biophysical approach shows promise for reliable ecosystem-level estimations of ET and CO2 uptake in extreme high-energy water-limited environments.

Description: For the past decade, observations of carbonyl sulfide (OCS or COS) have been investigated as a proxy for carbon uptake by plants. OCS is destroyed by enzymes that interact with CO2 during photosynthesis, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA) and RuBisCO, where CA is the more important one. The majority of sources of OCS to the atmosphere are geographically separated from this large plant sink, whereas the sources and sinks of CO2 are co-located in ecosystems. The drawdown of OCS can therefore be related to the uptake of CO2 without the added complication of co-located emissions comparable in magnitude. Here we review the state of our understanding of the global OCS cycle and its applications to ecosystem carbon cycle science. OCS uptake is correlated well to plant carbon uptake, especially at the regional scale. OCS can be used in conjunction with other independent measures of ecosystem function, like solar-induced fluorescence and carbon and water isotope studies. More work needs to be done to generate global coverage for OCS observations and to link this powerful atmospheric tracer to systems where fundamental questions concerning the carbon and water cycle remain.

Description: Partitioning carbon fluxes is key to understanding the process underlying ecosystem response to change. This study used soil and canopy fluxes with stable isotopes (13C) and radiocarbon (14C) measurements of a 50-year-old dry (i.e., 287 mm of annual precipitation) pine forest to partition the ecosystem’s CO2 flux into gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) and soil respiration flux into autotrophic (Rsa), heterotrophic (Rh), and inorganic (Ri) components. On an annual scale, GPP and Re were 655 and 488 g C m−2, respectively, with a net primary productivity (NPP) of 276 g C m−2 and carbon-use efficiency (CUE = NPP / GPP) of 0.42. Soil respiration (Rs) made up 60 % of the total ecosystem respiration and was comprised of 24 ± 4 %, 23 ± 4 %, and 13 ± 1 % Rsa, Rh, and Ri, respectively. The contribution of root and microbial respiration to Re increased during high productivity periods, and inorganic sources were more significant components when soil water content was low. Compared to the mean values for 2001–2006 at the same site; (Grünzweig et al., 2009), annual Rs decreased by 27 % to the mean 2016 rates of 0.8 ± 0.1 µmol m−2 s−1). This was associated with decrease in the respiration Q10 values across the same observation by 36 % and 9 % in the wet and dry periods, respectively. Low rates of soil carbon loss combined with relatively high below ground carbon allocation (i.e., 40 % of canopy CO2 uptake) help explain the high soil organic carbon accumulation and the relatively high ecosystem CUE of the dry forest. This was indicative of the higher resilience of the pine forest to climate change and the significant potential for carbon sequestration in these regions.

Description: Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is used as a as a tracer of CO2 exchange at the ecosystem and larger scales. The robustness of this approach depends on knowledge of the soil contribution to the ecosystem fluxes, which is uncertain at present. We assessed the spatial and temporal variations of soil COS and CO2 fluxes in the Mediterranean citrus orchard combining surface flux chambers and soil concentration gradients. The spatial heterogeneity in soil COS exchange indicated net uptake below and between trees of up to −4.6 pmol m−2 s−1, and net emission in exposed soil between rows, of up to +2.6 pmol m−2 s−1, with weighted mean uptake values of −1.10 ± 0.10 pmol m−2 s−1. Soil COS concentrations decreased with soil depth from atmospheric levels of ~ 450 to ~ 100 ppt at 20 cm depth, while CO2 concentrations increased from ~ 400 to ~ 5000 ppm. COS flux estimates from the soil concentration gradients were, on average, −1.02 ± 0.26 pmol m−2 s−1, consistent with the chamber measurements. A soil COS flux algorithm driven by soil moisture and temperature (5 cm depth) and distance from the nearest tree, could explain 75 % of variance in soil COS flux. Soil relative uptake, the normalized ratio of COS to CO2 fluxes was, on average −0.37 and showed a general exponential response to soil temperature. The results indicated that soil COS fluxes at our study site were dominated by uptake, with relatively small net fluxes compared to both soil respiration and reported canopy COS fluxes. Such result should facilitate the application of COS as a powerful tracer of ecosystem CO2 exchange.

Description: The role of secondary circulations has recently been studied in the context of well defined surface heterogeneity in a semi-arid ecosystem where it was found that energy balance closure over a desert-forest system and the structure of the boundary layer was impacted by advection and flux divergence. As a part of the CliFF (Climate Feedbacks and benefits of semi-arid forests, a collaboration between KIT, Germany and the Weizmann Institute, Israel) campaign, we studied the boundary layer dynamics and turbulent transport of energy corresponding to this effect in the Yatir forest situated in the Negev desert in Israel. The forest surrounded by small shrubs presents a distinct feature of surface heterogeneity, allowing us to study the differences between their interactions with the atmosphere above by conducting measurements with two EC stations and two Doppler LiDARs. As expected, the turbulence intensity and vertical fluxes of momentum and sensible heat are found to be higher above the forest compared to the shrubland. Turbulent statistics indicative of nonlocal motions are also found to differ over the forest and shrubland and also display a strong diurnal cycle. The production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) over the forest is strongly mechanical, while buoyancy effects generate most of the TKE over the shrubland. Overall TKE production is much higher above the forest compared to the shrubland. The forest is also found to be more efficient in dissipating TKE. The TKE budget appears to be balanced on average both for the forest and shrubland, although the imbalance of the TKE budget, which contains the role of TKE transport, is found to be quite different in terms of their variation with atmospheric stability and diurnal cycles for the forest and shrubland. The effect of very large mesoscale motions is also directly quantified following a recent formulation by Banerjee and Katul, 2013, using the measured longitudinal velocity variances and boundary layer heights. The difference of turbulent quantities and the relationships between the components of TKE budget are used to infer the characteristics of turbulent transport of energy between the desert and the forest.

Description: Partitioning carbon fluxes is key to understanding the process underlying ecosystem response to change. This study used soil and canopy fluxes with stable isotopes (13C) and radiocarbon (14C) measurements in an 18 km2, 50-year-old, dry (287 mm mean annual precipitation; nonirrigated) Pinus halepensis forest plantation in Israel to partition the net ecosystem's CO2 flux into gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) and (with the aid of isotopic measurements) soil respiration flux (Rs) into autotrophic (Rsa), heterotrophic (Rh), and inorganic (Ri) components. On an annual scale, GPP and Re were 655 and 488 g C m−2, respectively, with a net primary productivity (NPP) of 282 g C m−2 and carbon-use efficiency (CUE = NPP ∕ GPP) of 0.43. Rs made up 60 % of the Re and comprised 24±4 %Rsa, 23±4 %Rh, and 13±1 %Ri. The contribution of root and microbial respiration to Re increased during high productivity periods, and inorganic sources were more significant components when the soil water content was low. Comparing the ratio of the respiration components to Re of our mean 2016 values to those of 2003 (mean for 2001–2006) at the same site indicated a decrease in the autotrophic components (roots, foliage, and wood) by about −13 % and an increase in the heterotrophic component (Rh∕Re) by about +18 %, with similar trends for soil respiration (Rsa∕Rs decreasing by −19 % and Rh∕Rs increasing by +8 %, respectively). The soil respiration sensitivity to temperature (Q10) decreased across the same observation period by 36 % and 9 % in the wet and dry periods, respectively. Low rates of soil carbon loss combined with relatively high belowground carbon allocation (i.e., 38 % of canopy CO2 uptake) and low sensitivity to temperature help explain the high soil organic carbon accumulation and the relatively high ecosystem CUE of the dry forest.