HR: 0800h
AN: A51B-10    [Abstracts]
TI: Clouds modulate terrestrial carbon uptake in a mid-latitude hardwood forest
AU: * Min, Q
EM: min@asrc.cestm.albany.edu
AF: ASRC, State University of New York, Albany, 251 Fuller Road, Albany, NY 12203, United States
AU: Wang, S
EM: wsyy@asrc.cestm.albany.edu
AF: ASRC, State University of New York, Albany, 251 Fuller Road, Albany, NY 12203, United States
AB: 13 years of turbulent exchange and radiation measurements in a mid-latitude hardwood forest show that clouds enhance radiation use efficiency of carbon uptake (RUE), and that maximum carbon uptake occurs under moderate cloud cover. We find that both cyclic and secular variability of a simple observable metric of cloudiness (transmittance index) is the best statistical predictor of the interannual variability of both net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross ecosystem exchange (GEE) seen in our dataset. In contrast other factors analyzed show much weaker relationships with the terrestrial carbon uptake. This suggests that clouds play a pivotal role in driving the interannual variability of terrestrial carbon uptake by this forest and are an important mechanism of carbon cycle/climate interaction.
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 4853 Photosynthesis
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly