Proposal Cover Sheet NASA Research Announcement, NRA-00-OES-08
Transcription
Proposal Cover Sheet NASA Research Announcement, NRA-00-OES-08
Proposal Cover Sheet NASA Research Announcement, NRA-00-OES-08 Research Area: Carbon Cycle Science Title: FLUXNET, A Global Network of Carbon, Water and Energy Flux Measurement Sites: A Continuation Proposal for the Project Science Office Principal Investigator: Dennis Baldocchi, Department: Environmental Science, Policy and Management Institution: University of California, Berkeley Address: 151 Hilgard Hall City: Berkeley State: CA Zip: 94720-3110 Telephone: 510-642-2874 Fax: 510-642-5098 Email: [email protected]. Collaborating Researchers: Name Richard J. Olson Steve Running David Hollinger (AmeriFlux) Riccardo Valentini (CARBOEURO FLUX) Susumu Yamamoto (AsiaFlux) Ray Leuning (OzFlux) Institution & E-mail Address Oak Ridge National Laboratory [email protected] University of Montana [email protected] USDA-Forest Service [email protected] Univerisity of Tuscia [email protected] National Institute for Environmental Studies [email protected] CSIRO Land and Water [email protected]. au Address & Telephone Oak Ridge National Laboratory P.O. Box 2008, Mail Stop 6407 Oak Ridge, TN 37830-6407,865-574-7819 School of Forestry University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, 406-243-6311 USDA Forest Service,271 Mast Rd. Durham, NH 03824, 603-868-7673 University of Tuscia Department of Forest Science and Environment, 01100 Viterbo. ITALY, +390761-357394 National Institute for Resources and Environment, Ibaraki, Japan+81-298-618360 CSIRO Land and Water PO Box 1666 Canberra ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA, +61 2 6246 5557 ABSTRACT FLUXNET is a global network of long-term micrometeorological flux measurement sites at which the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere are measured. Through FLUXNET, the data streams from various regional flux measurement networks (AmeriFlux, CarboEurope, AsiaFlux, and OzFlux) are combined and a mechanism for synthesizing data across sites and biomes is realized. The goals of FLUXNET include quantifying temporal dynamics, spatial patterns and biotic and abiotic forcings of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy fluxes and providing data for the validation of remote sensing products that are inferring fluxes of carbon dioxide. The FLUXNET project is supported under NASA’s EOS Validation Program, until December, 2001. We are soliciting funds to renew FLUXNET and to update and expand upon its goals. At present over 140 flux measurement sites are registered and operating on a continuous basis. Vegetation under study includes temperate conifer and broadleaved forests, tropical and boreal forests, crops, wetlands, grasslands, chaparral, and tundra. Research sites exist on five continents and their latitudinal distribution ranges from 70 degrees north to 30 degrees south. Over thirty years of data have been archived. FLUXNET serves several primary functions that relate to the objectives of the solicitation for Carbon Cycle Science. With regards to the ‘improvement and evaluation of carbon cycling models’, integrated datasets produced by the FLUXNET project provide ground truth for algorithms that are using information generated by instruments mounted on satellites, e.g. TERRA, to generate regional and global estimates of carbon dioxide uptake by ecosystems. We will also use FLUXNET data to evaluate response of stand-scale carbon dioxide and water vapor flux densities to controlling biotic (plant functional type, leaf area, photosynthetic capacity) and abiotic (light, temperature, soil moisture) factors across a spectrum of time scales. Regarding the need to ‘advance our ability to estimate global and regional primary productivity’, we intend to use FLUXNET-derived data to quantifying the seasonal and inter-annual variability of ecosystem-scale carbon balances across an array of field sites and ecosystem functional types. We will also use data to test the performance of biophysical models that predict carbon and water fluxes over a spectrum of time scales. To meet our objectives, we sponsor a postdoctoral research associate, organize regular electronic communications, convene workshops, and provide travel support for visiting scientists to attend workshops and conduct analyzes at the FLUXNET project office. Data and site information are available from the FLUXNET website, http://wwweosdis.ornl.gov/FLUXNET. The FLUXNET website is maintained by the FLUXNET Data Information System (DIS) at Oak Ridge National Lab. Funding for this activity is being solicited under a companion proposal headed by Richard Olson. The FLUXNET project office provides scientific guidance to FLUXNET DIS to ensure data flow, quality assurance and control. To ensure intra-network comparability, FLUXNET supports the circulation of a reference set of flux measurement instrumentation to sites across the component sub-networks. TECHNICAL PLAN 1. Introduction Large scale, multi-investigator projects have been the keystone of many scientific and technological advances in the twentieth century. Physicists have learned much about the structure of an atom's nucleus with particle accelerators. Astrophysicists now peer deep into space with the Hubble Space Telescope and an array of radio telescopes. Molecular biologists are decoding the structure of our DNA with the Human Genome project. Ecosystem scientists need a tool that assesses the flows of carbon, water and energy to and from the terrestrial biosphere across the spectrum of time and space scales over which the biosphere operates (see Running et al., 1999; Canadell et al., 2000). This tool exists in the form of a global array of micrometeorological towers, called FLUXNET, at which the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere are being measured on a quasi-continuous and long-term (multi-year) basis. The FLUXNET project is currently being supported under NASA’s EOS Validation Program, until December 2001. We are writing this proposal to solicit funding to renew FLUXNET and to expand and extend its goals. FLUXNET serves several unique functions. It provides the framework and mechanism for uniting the activities and databases of several regional and continental carbon flux measurement networks, e.g. AmeriFlux, CarboEurope (formerly EuroFlux), AsiaFlux, OzFlux and CanadaNet, into an integrated global network. The global nature of FLUXNET extends and expands the number of climates and biomes that are associated with the regional networks, as well as methods. At present over 140 micrometeorological sites are measuring ecosystem scale carbon dioxide flux densities on a nearly continuous basis. Vegetation under study includes temperate conifer and broadleaved forests, tropical and boreal forests, crops, wetlands, grasslands, chaparral, and tundra. Research sites exist on five continents and their latitudinal distribution ranges from 70 degrees north to 30 degrees south. 2. Statement of Research This proposal, to fund the FLUXNET Project Office, addresses several of the objectives cited in the solicitation for Carbon Cycle Science. With regards to the ‘improvement and evaluation of carbon cycling models’, data derived from the FLUXNET project provide ground truth for algorithms that are using information generated by instruments mounted on satellites, e.g. MODIS, to generate regional and global estimates of carbon dioxide uptake by ecosystems. We intend to use FLUXNET data to evaluate the responses of stand-scale carbon dioxide and water vapor flux densities to controlling biotic (plant functional type, leaf area, photosynthetic capacity) and abiotic (light, temperature, soil moisture) factors across a spectrum of time scales. We also intend to use FLUXNET data to test the performance of biophysical carbon/water flux models across a spectrum of time scales and use such models to develop algorithms that can be forced with data taken from sensors on satellite platforms. Regarding the need to ‘advance our ability to estimate global and regional primary productivity’, we intend to use FLUXNET-derived data to quantifying the seasonal and inter-annual variability of ecosystem-scale carbon balances across an array of field sites and ecosystem functional types. 3. Background Over the past century, the states of the Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere have experienced much change. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, the mean global CO2 concentration has risen from about 280 ppm to over 368 ppm ((Keeling and Whorf, 1996). The secular rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is occurring due to imbalances between the rates that anthropogenic and natural sources emit CO2 and the rate that biospheric and oceanic sinks remove CO2 out of the atmosphere. Superimposed on the secular trend of CO2 is a record of large inter-annual variability in the annual rate of growth of atmospheric CO2. Typical values are on the order of 0.5 to 3 ppm yr-1. On a mass basis, these values correspond with a range between 1 and 5 Gt C yr-1. Potential sources of year-to-year changes in CO2 remain a topic of debate. Sources of this variability have been attributed to El Nino/La Nina events, which cause regions of droughts or superabundant rainfall (Keeling et al., 1995), and alterations in the timing and length of the growing season (Myneni et al, 1997; Randerson et al., 1997). In the meantime, the composition of the land surface has changed dramatically to meet the needs of the growing human population. Many agricultural lands have transformed into suburban and urban landscapes, wetlands have been drained and many tropical forests have been logged, burnt and converted to pasture. In contrast, abandoned farmland in the northeast United States and Europe is returning to forest as those societies become more urban. Changing a landscape from forest to agricultural crops, for instance, increases the surface’s albedo and decreases the Bowen ratio. Forests have a different physiological capacity to assimilate carbon and transpire water, compared to crops. A change in the age structure of forests due to direct (deforestation) or indirect (climateinduced fires) disturbance alters it ability to acquire carbon and transpire water (Schulze et al. 1999). Study of the Earth’s biogeochemistry and hydrology involves quantifying the flows of matter in and out of the atmosphere with an array of methods (Canadell et al., 2000). At the global scale, scientists assess carbon dioxide sources and sinks using inversion modeling of CO2, 13C and O2 concentration and wind fields (Ciais et al., 1995; Denning et al., 1996). At regional and continental scales, this approach is subject to errors due to the sparseness of the flask concentration network and their biased placement in the marine boundary layer (Denning et al., 1996). Instruments mounted on satellites platforms, view the Earth in total or regions in fine detail (1 km to 30 m resolution). They offer the potential to evaluate surface carbon fluxes on the basis of algorithms that are driven reflected and emitted radiation measurements (Running et al. 1999; Cramer et al., 1999). This approach, however, is inferential, so it is dependent on the accuracy of the model algorithms, the frequency of satellite images and the spectral information contained in the images. Application of remote sensing technology to assess carbon cycle science is highly dependent on ground truth data to generate, parameterize, and validate models and algorithms that use remotely sensed data. One measure of carbon flux ‘ground truth’ can be provided by biomass surveys (Kauppi et al., 1992; Gower et al., 1999). However, biomass surveys provide information on decadal time scales, so they do not provide information on shorter-term physiological forcings and mechanisms that are needed by satellite-driven algorithms. Furthermore, forest inventory studies are labor intensive and inferential estimates of net carbon exchange. Such studies rarely measure growth of small trees and below-ground allocation of carbon. Instead biomass surveys commonly assume a certain portion of carbon is allocated below ground (Gower et al., 1999). Soil carbon surveys can be conducted, but like biomass surveys, they require long intervals to resolve detectable differences in net carbon uptake or loss. The eddy covariance method, a micrometeorological technique, provides a direct measure of net carbon and water fluxes between vegetated canopies and the atmosphere (Baldocchi et al., 1988; Aubinet et al. 2000). It is a non-intrusive method that has been automated. The eddy covariance method is able to measure fluxes quasi-continuously over short and long time scales (hour, days, seasons and years) with minimal disturbance to the underlying vegetation. The eddy covariance method is able to sample a relatively large area of land. Typical footprints have longitudinal length scales of 100 to 2000 m. With the eddy covariance methods we can measure, at the stand scale, how ecosystems respond to environmental forcings and we can quantify their dynamic variability across a multitude of time scales. Response functions, generated by a network of carbon flux measurement sites can be used to validate and improve upon algorithms being used by remote sensors and global and regional scale modelers to scale carbon and water fluxes from landscape to regional and continental scales. Direct flux measurements also identify new properties that emerge as we transcend scales from the leaf to canopy and canopy to landscape scales. Micrometeorologists have been making measurements of CO2 and water vapor exchange between vegetation and the atmosphere since the late 1950's and early 1960's. Yet, only recently have we had the technology available that enables us to make continuous flux measurements at numerous sites. Wofsy et al. (1993), at Harvard Forest, were among the first investigators to measure carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes continuously over a forest over the course of a year with the eddy covariance method. Spurred by this pioneering study, a handful of other towers were soon established and operating by 1993 in North America (Oak Ridge, TN, Greco and Baldocchi, 1996) and in Japan (Yamamoto et al., 1999) and Europe by 1994 (Valentini et al., 1996). The concept of a global network of long-term flux measurement sites had a genesis as early as the 1993, as noted in the Science Plan of the IGBP/BAHC (International Geosphere-Biosphere Program/Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle). Formal discussion of the concept among the international science community occurred at the 1995 La Thuile workshop (Baldocchi et al., 1996). At this meeting, the flux measurement community discussed the possibility, problems and pitfalls associated with making long-term flux measurements. After the La Thuile meeting there was acceleration in the establishment of flux tower sites and regional flux measurement networks. The EUROFLUX project started in 1996 (Aubinet et al., 2000; Valentini et al., 2000). The AmeriFlux project was conceived in 1997, subsuming the cited on-going tower studies and initiating new studies. With anticipation of the Earth Observation Satellite (EOS/TERRA), NASA decided to fund the global-scale FLUXNET project, as a means of validating EOS products, in 1998. As we write this proposal over 30 site-years of carbon dioxide flux data have been compiled and are accessible on-line for further analysis and synthesis, and more are being processed. The measurements provided by the FLUXNET project are only one component of an integrated tool that assesses the carbon balance of ecosystems (see Canadell et al., 2000). To perform spatial and temporal integrations, flux measurement data will need to be linked with model computations and the models will be driven with satellite products, forming a linkage between surface carbon flux measurements and their assessment from space. We, as a scientific community, possess a hierarchy and rapidly growing number of biophysical models that assess carbon dioxide and water vapor exchange between vegetation and the atmosphere (Sellers et al., 1997). The models vary in conceptual complexity, by how they treat the spatial and temporal variability of the canopy microclimate, the plant and community structure and the functionality of the ecosystem. With regards to the spatial domain, biophysical trace gas flux models treat the canopy as: 1) a big-leaf; 2) a big-leaf with dual sources; 3) two layers (one for plants and the other for soil); 4) multiple layers and 5) a three-dimensional array of plants and canopy elements. With respect to temporal variability, carbon-water flux models with micrometeorological origins focus on radiative and turbulence transfer within and above the vegetative canopy and how stomata respond to environmental and physiological forcings (Baldocchi and Harley, 1995; Leuning et al., 1995; Gu et al., 1999). These models are capable of simulating the response of canopy-scale carbon and water fluxes to short-term weather variations over the diurnal course of fine summer days. Models based on ecological and biogeochemical principles focus on how carbon and water fluxes may vary on daily, monthly and annual time scales (Running and Hunt, 1993; Cramer et al., 1999). These models account for changes in plant, soil and root carbon pools by understanding their respective sizes and turnover times, but tend to oversimplify or ignore the effects of microclimate variability within a plant canopy. Biogeochemical models that extend to longer time scales need to consider disturbance by fire and land use change, nitrogen balance of plants and the soil and changes in stand composition, hydrological balance and climate. As we write this proposal, at the start of the new millennium, the study at Harvard Forest has been ongoing for a decade and studies at Oak Ridge, TN, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Thompson Manitoba have over five years of data. Consequently, data sets with over 50,000 hours of flux measurements are now available to the modeling community. Tests of coupled carbon-water flux models on multi-year time scales plus are starting to be produced, yet the total number of papers that address and test models on this time scale is meager (Law et al., 2000; Baldocchi and Wilson, in press). With the availability of new and longer data sets new questions arise about the applicability and accuracy of coupled carbon-water flux models. The new applications of coupled carbonwater flux models needs to consider the seasonal dynamics of biology, as well as meteorology, and reproduce observed phenology. This feature requires the dynamic adjustment of many model parameters that have been considered static in past applications, such as leaf area index, photosynthetic capacity, basal rates of enzyme kinetics and plant-water relations on stomatal conductance, photosynthesis and soil respiration. We are on the verge of being able to combine the best attributes of biophysical and biogeochemical models and to develop mechanistically based algorithms that can be assessed with remotely sensed measurements. Combining hierarchal model analysis (with regards to processes, time and space scales) with FLUXNET data is one way to achieve this goal. 4. Objectives The research objectives that FLUXNET and its Project Office intend to accomplish are: 1) to quantify the spatial differences in net biosphere-atmosphere carbon dioxide and water vapor exchange rates that are experienced within and across ecological and climatic gradients; this information can provide ground truth data for calculations of carbon exchange that are generated by regional and global carbon balance models that are forced with remote sensing information 2) to examine temporal dynamics and variability (seasonal, inter-annual) of carbon, water and energy flux densities; this analysis is needed to examine the influences of phenology, droughts, heat spells, El Niño, length of growing season, phenology and presence or absence of snow on canopy-scale fluxes and to assess the temporal variability of stand-scale model parameters being used by algorithms that are forced by remote sensing products, such as light use efficiency; 3) to quantify the sensitivities of carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes to changes in insolation, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, photosynthetic capacity, nutrition, canopy structure and ecosystem functional type; this analysis will allows us to quantify scale-dependent and non-linear response functions for the generate empirical algorithms that can be applied by regional and global carbon balance models that are forced with remote sensing information. 4) test the performance of biophysical models across the ecological and climatic range of sites in FLUXNET; validated biophysical models can be used to develop mechanistically-based simpler algorithms that can be assessed by sensors residing on satellites; citing one example, we have used this approach to examine how gross photosynthetic production scales with leaf area index, the fraction of absorbed light and photosynthetic capacity (Figure 1) 1600 CANOAK, 1997 2 r =0.935 -2 -1 Canopy Ps (gC m yr ) 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 0 100 200 300 400 500 Figure 1 Model calculations of canopy photosynthesis as a function of leaf area index, fpar and photosynthetic capacity (Vcmax, a function of leaf nitrogen) (after Baldocchi and Wilson, in press). Vcmax LAI/fpar 5) compile and synthesize of ecophysiological metadata, such a photosynthetic capacity, leaf area and species transects, to assess FLUXNET measurements and to drive process-level carbon flux models; this information, combined with flux footprint information, is needed to extrapolate tower flux measurements to the kilometer scale and match assessments from coarser-scale remote sensing indices such as NDVI. 5. Scientific Relevance FLUXNET addresses many aspects of the primary questions that are associated with this solicitation. FLUXNET is compiling information on ecosystem scale carbon, water and energy fluxes that can quantify how the global Earth system is changing, across a spectrum of time and space scales. FLUXNET products are also quantifying and identifying many primary forcings on the earth system. If the Earth System is truly experiencing global warming, data provided by FLUXNET can act as a ‘canary in the coal mine’, by quantifying ecosystem metabolism before, during and after the change. Information obtained via FLUXNET also addresses the secondary-tier questions relating to how terrestrial ecosystems respond to environmental change and how they affect the global carbon cycle. FLUXNET is particularly relevant with respect to the validation and defensibility of many of NASA’s satellite based products. For example, MODIS derived maps of net primary productivity depend on FLUXNET products for validation and verification. With regard to carbon cycle science, the concept of a global flux measurement network is endorsed in the US Carbon Cycle Plan (Sarmiento and Wofsy, eds, 1999). FLUXNET serves as an instrument that enables NASA to develop, improve and evaluate terrestrial carbon cycle models and it provides data and new algorithms for the estimate of regional and global primary productivity by instruments on satellite-based platforms. 6. Expected Significance FLUXNET does not intend to measure spatially integrated carbon and water fluxes at the regional to continental scale. Instead, we endeavor to derive information on the temporal and spatial controls of these fluxes at the landscape scale and combine this information with satellite-derived products and geographical information systems to deduce spatially integrated fluxes that are representative. We cite three examples showing how information derived from FLUXNET can be combined with satellite-based information to improve our understanding of the carbon cycle. Multi-year carbon flux records allow us to examine inter-annual time scales, the timing of leaf expansion may be advanced or delayed by a month due to large-scale climatic features that can be associated with El Niño-La Niña cycles (Myneni et al., 1997; Keeling et al., 1996). The FLUXNET project can produce direct information on the impact of changing growing season length on net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange. Initial data are indicating that each additional day of growing season length affects net ecosystem CO2 exchange of temperate deciduous forests by 6 g m-2 (Figure 2). Combining the data in Figure 2 with remote sensing data (eg. Myneni et al., 1998) will allow us to understand how CO2 exchange is perturbed across larger space scales. Temperate Deciduous Forests 0 -100 NEE (g C m-2 year-1) -200 -300 -400 Figure 2 Measurements and computations of the relation between length of growing season and net ecosystem CO2 exchange of broadleaved deciduous forests. The relation is linear, it accounts for over 80% of the variance and a coupled biophysical model is able to capture this behavior. (after Baldocchi and Wilson, in press). -500 The second example, involves the assessment CANOAK, Oak Ridge, TN of light use efficiency, as -700 Published Measurements, r =0.89 used by many satellite -800 algorithms to determine 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 gross primary Days with NEE < 0 productivity (Cramer et al., 1999). The accumulating body of FLUXNET data is showing that light use efficiency varies by a factor of two whether the sky is clear or cloudy (Gu et al., 1999; Figure 3). This type of information is not widely utilized by the remote sensing community, hence, their current estimates of regional carbon exchange may be wrong. -600 2 Figure 3 Seasonal trend of initial quantum yield of canopy scale CO2 exchange as a function of clear and cloudy conditions. The data are from an aspen stand and were acquired by TA Black and colleagues. (after Gu et al. in preparation) 5 Initial quantum yield (mol CO2/mol photon)*100 Diffuse PAR Direct PAR 4 3 2 The third example relates to the seasonal forcing of 0 biophysical models 180 200 220 240 260 280 for computing Day of Year carbon exchange. At present many models may vary weather inputs and leaf area index seasonally on the basis of remote sensing measurements, but they assume static values for features such as photosynthetic capacity. We are now using FLUXNET data to examine how well model calculations, based on certain parameterization schemes, reproduce the power spectrum of measured carbon fluxes (Figure 4). Identifying periods of low and high coherence between measured and modeled fluxes across an array of plant functional types will enable us to refine how we model carbon fluxes across a spectrum of time scales. Global assessments of carbon fluxes using satellite-based sensors cannot proceed credibly without this necessary intermediate step. 1 Figure 4 Comparison of the power spectra of CO2 flux density measured over a deciduous forest and computed with a biophysical model (after Baldocchi and Wilson, in press). 1997, Temperate Deciduous Forest 10 nSFc/σ2Fc 1 Fcwpl CANOAK 0.1 7. Technical Approach 0.01 0.001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 -1 Frequency (cycles hr ) 1 FLUXNET has two functioning components, a project office and a data archive office. The Project Office houses the principal investigator and a postdoctoral scientist. This proposal is soliciting funds to continue the operation and activities of project office. One function of the FLUXNET Project Office is to provide the leadership that enables to various regional flux measurement networks (AmeriFlux, CarboEurope, AsiaFlux, OzFlux) to operate as an integrated global network. This involves the fostering of communication and collaboration among network leaders (co-investigators on this project) and participants to ensure that data streams are combined, the data are documented and they meet high and quantified standards. Science is still a people oriented business and scientists tend to be reluctant to distribute data. Operations based out of the FLUXNET Project Office have been instrumental in coaxing scientists to submit data. We were able to get access to EUROFLUX data a year before the release of its CDROM and we have been instrumental in getting many teams to release data to FLUXNET DIS in near real-time (eg two week delay). To ensure intra-network comparability, FLUXNET’s second function involves travel support for the circulation of a reference set of flux measurement instrumentation to sites across the component sub-networks. A roving set of reference field instruments will travel to candidate sites in each regional network (contracted through the lab of Dr. David Hollinger). Through the calibration activity we will be able to assess if carbon or energy fluxes from site A, in North America, differs from Site B, in Europe, whether or not the difference is methodological or actual. The formation of a global network facilitates the acquisition of data across a wide range of canopy height, plant functionality, climate conditions and topography. The third function of FLUXNET is to provide a mechanism for synthesizing data across sites and biomes, with the objective of understanding temporal dynamics, spatial patterns and biotic and abiotic forcings of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy fluxes. To meet this objective, we sponsor a postdoctoral research associate, convene workshops, organize regular electronic communication of ideas and research methods with the FLUXNET community through our list server and provide travel support for visiting scientists to workshops and to spend time and conduct research at the FLUXNET Project Office. It is our experience working on past integrated projects (such as BOREAS) that cross-site syntheses are not conducted unless there is a dedicated research office that is responsible for this activity. Participating scientists tend to be too busy studying their own site to be able to examine data across sites. The fourth function of the FLUXNET Project Office is to provide scientific advice and guidance to the FLUXNET Data Information System (DIS) (http://wwweosdis.ornl.gov/FLUXNET/) in regards to processing, archiving, documenting and accessing data (see proposal by R. Olson et al, Fluxnet: a global flux database to advance carbon cycle science). The FLUXNET Project Office has been very instrumental in developing gap-filling routines (Falge et al., 2000), which are being used by FLUXNET DIS. The FLUXNET Project Office also produced the first FLUXNET CD-ROM, in June 2000, which contained over thirty site years of data. The fifth function of FLUXNET is to ensure that NASA’s satellite-derive products of carbon flows are validated against ground truth data. Tower flux data are used to test model algorithms by season and plant functional type, and are used to identify new emerging processes that have been ignored so far. The sixth function of the FLUXNET Project Office is to represent the network internationally, as FLUXNET has been incorporated into the plans of several international projects such as International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP/BAHC) (http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~bahc/), the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) (http://www.wmo.ch/web/gcos/gcoshome.html) and the International Biodiversity Observation Year of Diversitas (http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/IBOY/index2.html) a. Experimental Measurements The eddy covariance method is used to assess trace gas fluxes between the biosphere and atmosphere at each site within the FLUXNET community (Aubinet et al., 2000; Valentini et al., 2000). Vertical flux densities of CO2 (Fc), latent (λ λE) and sensible heat (H) between vegetation and the atmosphere are proportional to the mean covariance between vertical velocity (w') and the respective scalar (c') fluctuations (eg. CO2, water vapor, and temperature). Scalar concentration fluctuations are measured with open and closed path infrared gas analyzers. Three-dimensional sonic anemometers are used to measure wind velocities and standardized data processing routines are used to compute flux covariances (Baldocchi et al., 1988; Aubinet et al., 2000). As we attempt to apply the eddy covariance method in a network mode, errors can arise from biases that are introduced by the sparse spatial density and low representativeness of sites and errors due to differences in calibration and data processing. The former error may be overcome by stratified sampling. In its current configuration the network has good coverage of sites across a spectrum of temperature and precipitation zones (Running et al., 1999). Systematic sampling errors can be quantified and compensated for by employing uniform measurement methods (Valentini et al., 2000), and by intercalibrating and cross checking of data processing methods (Aubinet et al., 2000). Our community is interested in assessing the net uptake of carbon dioxide by the biosphere, not the flux across some arbitrary level. When the thermal stratification of the atmosphere is stable or turbulent mixing is weak, material diffusing from leaves and the soil may not reach the reference height zr in a time that is small compared to the averaging time, thereby violating the assumption of steady state. Under such conditions the storage term becomes non-zero, so it must be added to the eddy covariance measurement to represent the balance of material flowing into and out of the soil and vegetation. While the storage term is small over short crops, it is an important quantity over taller forests. At present, several teams of investigators are applying an empirical correction to compensate for the underestimate of nighttime flux measurements. This correction is based on CO2 flux density measurements obtained during windy periods or by replacing data with a temperature-dependent respiration function. Most researchers presume that data from windy periods represent conditions when the storage and drainage of CO2 is minimal (Aubinet et al., 2000). Most clients of eddy flux data require uninterrupted time series. It is the intent of the micrometeorological community to collect eddy covariance data 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. However, missing data in the archived records is a common feature. The average data coverage during a year is between 65 % and 75% due to system failures or data rejection (Falge et al., 2000). Gaps in the data record are attributed to system or sensor breakdown, periods when instruments are off-scale, when the wind is blowing through a tower, when spikes occur in the raw data, if the vertical angle of attack by the wind vector is too severe and when data are missing because of calibration and maintenance. Other sources of missing data arise from farming operations and other management activities (e.g., prescribed burn of grasslands). Rejection criteria applied to the data vary among the flux tower groups. Data might be rejected, when stationarity tests or integral turbulence characteristics fail, when precipitation limits the performance of open path sensors, during sensor calibration, or when spikes occur in instrument readings. Other criteria used to reject data include applications of biological or physical constraints (lack of energy balance closure; Aubinet et al., 2000) and a meandering flux-footprint source area. If the wind is coming from a non-preferred direction as may occur over mixed stands, a certain portion of the data will need to be screened. In addition, rejection probability for some sites is higher during nighttime because of calm wind conditions. b. Model Calculations Process-based biophysical models will be used to compute fluxes of carbon, water and energy over a spectrum of plant functional types and across a spectrum of time scales (eg. Baldocchi and Harley, 1995; Baldocchi and Wilson, in press; Leuning et al., 1995; Gu et al., 1999). Detailed multi-layered models will be used to develop simpler, process based algorithms that can be implemented indices sensed by satellites, such as fpar (e.g. Figure 1). CANVEG is one example a one-dimensional, multi-layer biosphere-atmosphere gas exchange model that computes water vapor, CO2 and sensible heat flux densities and the microclimate within and above vegetation (Baldocchi and Harley, 1995); though the models of Gu et al. (1999) and Leuning et al. (1995) use similar principles. The model consists of coupled micrometeorological and eco-physiological modules. The micrometeorological modules compute leaf and soil energy exchange, turbulent diffusion, scalar concentration profiles and radiative transfer through the canopy. To account for non-linear effects computations are performed on sunlit and shaded leaf fractions. Environmental variables, computed with the micrometeorological module (light, wind, temperature, humidity, CO2), in turn, drive the physiological modules that compute leaf photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration and leaf, bole and soil/root respiration. Biochemical models are used for photosynthesis and stomatal conductance and photosynthesis are coupled. Inputs include weather variables, leaf area index and photosynthetic capacity. The model has been described and tested for summer length studies in Baldocchi and Harley (1995) and Baldocchi (1997). A brief overview is provided below. The conservation budget for a passive scalar provides the foundation for computing scalar fluxes and their local ambient concentrations. If we assume that the a canopy is horizontally homogeneous and environmental conditions are steady, the scalar conservation equation was evaluated as an equality between the change, with height, of the vertical turbulent flux (F) and the diffusive source/sink strength. The diffusive source strength was computed using a resistance-analog relationship: S(C, z) = - a(z) (C(z) - Ci ) r b (z) + r s (z) (1) where a(z) is the leaf area density (m2 m-3), (C(z) - Ci) is the potential difference of scalar concentration or heat content between air outside the laminar boundary layer of leaves and the air within the stomatal cavity (mol mol-1), rb is the boundary layer resistance to molecular diffusion (mol-1 m2 s1), and rs is the stomatal resistance (mol-1 m2 s1). The light environment on sunlit and shaded leaves in a canopy is very distinct and the response of many biophysical processes to that light is highly non-linear. We evaluate Equation 1 at particular levels in the canopy on the basis of the radiation balance on the sunlit (psun) and shaded (pshade) leaf fractions. The transfer of photons through the canopy was simulated to evaluate the flux densities of visible, near infrared and longwave radiation, the probability of sunlit and shaded leaves, as well as photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and leaf and soil energy balances. The radiative transfer model was derived from probabilistic theory. The radiative transfer model assumes that foliage is randomly distributed in space and the sun is a point source. In this case the probability of beam penetration was calculated using a Poisson distribution: P 0 = exp (- LG ) sin β (2) where L is leaf area index, β is the solar elevation angle and G is the foliage orientation function. G represents the direction cosine between the sun and the mean leaf normal. For the ideal case, in which leaves have a spherical angle distribution, G is constant and equals one-half. Typically, native vegetation has clumped foliage. In these circumstances, the Poisson probability density function is inadequate for computing probabilities of photon transmission through vegetation. Instead, the Markov model can be employed to compute the probability of beam penetration: L GΩ (3) ) sin β where Ω is a clumping factor and ranges between zero and one. Most satellite based carbon flux algorithms ignore this effect, yet our research shows it can lead to a 20% increase in P 0 = exp (- computed net carbon flux (Baldocchi and Harley, 1995; Baldocchi and Wilson, in press), an observation that has been verified with eddy covariance data. The interdependence between sources and sinks (S(C,z)) and scalar concentrations (C(z)) requires the use of a turbulent diffusion model. A Lagrangian turbulence transfer scheme is used to compute turbulent transport and diffusion. A dispersion matrix was computed using a stochastic differential equation that tracked the diffusion of an ensemble of fluid parcels. The algorithm accounts for inhomogeneity of turbulence statistics inside the canopy and the impact of atmospheric thermal stability on the variance of vertical velocity fluctuations. A turbulence diffusion model, based on the Lagranian framework, is preferred to ‘K-theory’ because counter-gradient transport occurs in canopies. We have developed simple ‘resistance’ based parameterizations of the dispersion matrix, to enable routine application, that accounts for thermal stratification in the canopy. Leaf boundary layer resistances for molecular compounds were computed using flat plate theory and accommodations for free and forced convection are made. Leaf temperature was calculated by solving the leaf energy balance. This information was used to determine enzymatic rates associated with carboxylation, electron transport, and respiration and to evaluate transpiration, sensible heat fluxes and infrared emission. Soil constitutes the lowest boundary of a canopy-scale, water vapor, CO2 and trace gas exchange model. Flux densities of convective and conductive heat transfer and evaporation at the soil/litter boundary and soil temperature profiles were computed using a ten layer numerical soil heat transfer model. Surface energy fluxes were computed using an analytical solution to a surface’s energy balance. The biochemical equations for the carbon exchange processes are taken from Farquhar et al., (1980). Leaf photosynthesis (A) is a function of the carboxylation (Vc), oxygenation (Vo, photorespiration) and dark respiration (Rd) rates of CO2 exchange between the leaf and the atmosphere (all have units of µmol m-2 s-1). A = V c - 0.5 V o - Rd (4) The term, Vc - 0.5 Vo , is a function of the minimum of two processes, the rate of carboxylation when ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP) is saturated and the carboxylation rate when RuBP regeneration is limited by electron transport. Stomatal conductance is computed using algorithms that link it to photosynthesis (e.g. Leuning et al., 1995). Respiration provides energy for metabolism and synthesis. At the leaf level, we assessed dark respiration at a reference temperature is as a function of photosynthetic capacity or its surrogate leaf nitrogen. Kinetic coefficients for photosynthesis and respiration are adjusted for temperature. The model will generate environmental and biological response functions that can be implemented with remotely sensed information, such as light response curves with different integration times (Leuning et al, 1995) or a function of clear and cloudy days (Baldocchi and Harley, 1995; Gu et al., 1999) (as shown in Figures 1 –3), light use efficiencies, compartmental fluxes that depend on leaf area, photosynthetic capacity and absorbed light. These response functions will be tested with data from the FLUXNET database, for application to numerous functional types, and will be implemented in other research programs, such as NASA carbon science proposals by Steve Running and by Inez Fung. c. Facilities and Equipment At present over 140, instrumented tower flux sites are operating over various ecosystems across the globe. Most tower flux sites are funded by the European Community (EUROFLUX), US. DOE (NIGEC and TCP programs: AmeriFlux), NASA and NOAA (GCIP); additional information on these networks is available at on-line web sites: EUROFLUX, http://www.unitus.it/eflux/euro.html AmeriFlux, http://www.ornl.esd.gov/programs/NIGEC). AsiaFlux http://www-cger.nies.go.jp/moni/flux/asia_flux/main.html FLUXNET does not fund tower sites directly, but depends upon institutional support associated with the funding of the AmeriFlux (NIGEC, DOE, NASA, NOAA, Canadian National Research Council, LBA), the EUROFLUX and MEDEFLU (European Commision), AsiaFlux (Environment Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture; Japan) and OzFlux (CSIRO, Australia) networks. The individual flux tower sites within the FLUXNET sphere of influence represent a considerable investment by local and regional government agencies. The cost of the whole network is on the order of several millions of dollars per year; about $50k start-up costs and about $50 to 100k per year for professional and staff support. The value-added costs to NASA for funding FLUXNET project far out-weighs the cost of developing an independent network of similar scope, skill and experience from scratch. The FLUXNET Project Office has a 600 MHz personal computer to process data, a color and inkjet printer and a CD ROM reader/writer to generate electronic copies of data sets. d. Work Plan The central project office that will coordinate activities for a network on measuring longterm fluxes of carbon, water and energy across a spectrum of biomes. Specific duties of the FLUXNET office include: 1) constructing and analyzing integrated data sets for synthesis of field data and the for the development and testing of Soil-AtmosphereVegetation-Transfer models. 2) organizing workshops for data synthesis and model testing activities. 3) interacting with investigators to ensure the documentation of data and its submission to the data archive office 4) preparing peer-reviewed research papers and reports on FLUXNET activities and analyzes. 5) executing and analyzing of site inter-comparison studies. 6) working with and providing scientific guidance to the FLUXNET Data and Information System. The duties of the Project Office are distinct from the FLUXNET Data and Information system (FLUXNET DIS), which: 1) compiles and documents data in consistent formats with known quality, 2) maintains the FLUXNET Web page for communications and data exchange, and 3) transfers FLUXNET data and metadata to a long-term archive, currently designated as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center. To ensure communication between the FLUXNET Project Office and FLUXNET DIS, regular conference calls are conducted on a bi-weekly basis. With regard to workshops, two classes will be planned and organized. Type one activities will involve a cross-section of the flux measurement community. Goals will include reporting recent results, discussions of methods, and using data from an array of environments to aid the interpretation of results. The type two workshop will involve a mixture of participants from the ecological modeling, flux measurement and remote sensing communities. Aims of the workshops will include constructing data sets for model testing, model testing and parameterization and use of the models for synthesis, as how the biosphere is changing or may be responding to external perturbations. REFERENCES Aubinet, M., A. Grelle, A. Ibrom, et al.. 2000. 'Estimates of the annual net carbon and water exchange of Europeran forests: the EUROFLUX methodology', Advances of Ecological Research. 30, 113175. Baldocchi D.D. and Harley P.C. 1995. Scaling carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange from leaf to canopy in a deciduous forest. II. Model testing and application. Plant, Cell and Environment. 18, 1157-1173. Baldocchi, D.D. and K.B.Wilson. 2000. Modeling CO2 and water vapor exchange of a temperate broadleaved forest across hourly to decadal time scales. Ecological Modeling. (in press). Baldocchi, D.D., B.B. Hicks and T.P. Meyers. 1988. Measuring biosphere-atmosphere exchanges of biologically related gases with micrometeorological methods. Ecology. 69:1331-1340. Baldocchi, D.D., R.Valentini, S.R. Running, W. Oechel and R. Dahlman. 1996. Strategies for measuring and modeling CO2 and water vapor fluxes over terrestrial ecosystems. Global Change Biology.2: 159-168. Canadell, J., H. Mooney, D. Baldocchi, J. Berry, J. Ehleringer, C.B. Field, T. Gower, D. Hollinger, J. Hunt, R. Jackson, S. Running, G. Shaver, S. Trumbore, R. Valentini and B. Yoder. 2000. Carbon metabolism of the terrestrial biosphere. Ecosystems 3, 115-130. Ciais, P., Tans, P.P., Trolier, M., White, JWC, Francy, RJ. 1995. A large North Hemisphere terrestrial CO2 sink indicated by the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2. Science. 269, 1098-1102. Cramer, W.J., D.W. Kicklighter, A. Bondeau et al., 1999. Comparing global models of terrestrial primary productivity (NPP): overview and key results. Global Change Biology. 5, 1-15. Denning, A. S., J. G. Collatz, C. Zhang, D. A. Randall, J. A. Berry, P. J. Sellers, G. D. Colello, and D. A. Dazlich, 1996: Simulations of terrestrial carbon metabolism and atmospheric CO2 in a general circulation model. Part 1: Surface carbon fluxes. Tellus, 48B, 521-542. Falge E., Baldocchi, D.D., Olson, R.J., et al.. 2000. Gap Filling Strategies for long term energy flux data sets. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. (in press). Farquhar, G.D., von Caemmerer, S., and Berry, J. A.1980: A biochemical model of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in leaves of C3 species. Planta. 149, 78-90. Gower, S.T., CJ Kucharik and JM Norman. 1999. Direct and indirect estimation of leaf area index, fpar and net primary production of terrestrial ecosystems. Remote Sensing of the Environment. 70, 29-51 Greco, S. and D.D. Baldocchi. 1996. Seasonal variations of CO2 and water vapor exchange rates over a temperate deciduous forest. Global Change Biology. 2: 183-198. Gu, L., Fuentes, J.D., Shugart, H.H., Staebler, R.M. and Black, T.A.. 1999. Responses of net ecosystem exchanges of carbon dioxide to changes in cloudiness: results form two North American deciduous forests. Journal of Geophysical Research 104, 31421-31434. Kauppi, P.E., K. Mielikainen and K. Kuuseia. (1992). Biomass and carbon budget of European forests, 1971 to 1990. Science, 256: 70-74. Keeling, C.D. and T.P. Whorf. 1994. Atmospheric CO2 records from sites in the SIO air sampling network.pp 16-26. In: Trends ‘93: A compendium of Data on Global Change. ORNL/CDIAC-65. Oak Ridge, TN Law B.E., Waring R.H., Anthoni P.M., and Aber, J. 2000. Measurements of gross and net ecosystem productivity and water vapour exchange of a Pinus ponderosa ecosystem, and an evaluation of two generalized models. Global Change Biology 6, 155-168. Lee, X. 1998. 'On micrometeorological observations of surface-air exchange over tall vegetation', Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 91, 39-50. Leuning, R., Kelliher, F.M., dePury, D., and Schulze, E.D.. 1995. Leaf nitrogen, photosynthesis, conductance and transpiration: scaling from leaves to canopies. Plant, Cell and Environment. 18, 1183-1200. Keeling, C.D., Whorf, T.P., Wahlen, M., and v.d. Plicht, J., 1995. Interannual extremes in the rate of rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1980. Nature, 375: 666-670. Myneni, R.B., C.D.Keeling, C.J. Tucker, G. Asrar and R.R. Nemani. 1997. Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 1981-1991. Nature. 386, 698-702. Randerson, J.T., Thompson, M.V., Conway, T.J., Fung, I.Y., and Field, C.B., 1997. The contribution of terrestrial sources and sinks to trends in the seasonal cycle of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 11: 535-560. Running, S. W. and Hunt, E.R. 1993. Generalization of a forest ecosystem process model for other biomes, BIOME-BGC, and an application for global scale models. In: Scaling Physiological Processes: Leaf to Globe. Eds. J. Ehleringer and C. Field. Academic Press. New York. pp. 141-158. Running, S.W., D.D. Baldocchi, D. Turner S.T. Gower, P. Bakwin and K. Hibbard. 1999. A global terrestrial monitoring network, scaling tower fluxes with ecosystem modeling and EOS satellite data. Remote Sensing of the Environment. 70, 108-127. Sarmiento, J.L. and Wofsy, S.C. 1999. A U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan. US Global Change Research Program. Schulze ED, Lloyd J, Kelliher FM, et al. 1999. Productivity of forests in the Eurosiberian boreal region and their potential to act as a carbon sink - a synthesis Global Change Biology 5:703-722. Sellers, P.J., Dickinson, R.E., Randall, D.A., Betts, A.K., Hall, F.G., Berry, J.A., Collatz, G.J, Denning, A.S., Mooney, H.A., Nobre, C.A., Sato, N., Field, C.B., Henderson-Sellers, A. 1997. Modeling the exchanges of energy, water and carbon between continents and the atmosphere. Science. 275, 502509. Wofsy, S.C, M.L. Goulden, J.W. Munger, S.M. Fan, P.S. Bakwin, B.C. Daube, S.L. Bassow and F.A. Bazzaz. 1993. 'Net exchange of CO2 in a mid-latitude forest', Science. 260, 1314-1317. Valentini, R. G. Matteucci, A.J. Dolman, et al. Respiration as the main determinant of carbon balance in European forests. Nature. 2000. 404, 861-864 Valentini, R. P. de Angelis, G. Matteucci, R. Monaco, S. Dore, and G.E. Scarascia-Mugnozza. 1996. Seasonal net carbon dioxide exchange of a beech forest with the atmosphere. Global Change Biology. 2: 199-208. Yamamoto, S., S. Murayama, N. Saigusa and H. Kondo. 1999. Tellus. Seasonal and interannual variation of CO2 flux between a temperate forest and the atmosphere in Japan. Tellus. 51B 402-413. MANAGEMENT PLAN 1. Personnel Dennis Baldocchi will oversee the project, analyze data, conduct biophysical model tests, develop algorithms and convene workshops. Dr. Baldocchi brings twenty years of expertise and experience in measuring and modeling canopy scale CO2 and water vapor fluxes. He, along with Dr. Valentini, were conveners of the La Thuile workshop 1995, that formed the basis of the FLUXNET project. Richard Olson, Steve Running, Ricardo Valentini, Ray Leuning and Susumu Yamamoto will participate at no cost. Mr. Olson is a team leader of the EOS-DAAC facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and principal investigator of the Fluxnet Data Information System. He will bring expertise on data distribution to the project and will work closely with Dr. Tom Boden of ORNL/ESD, on the generation and maintenance of the FLUXNET database. The FLUXNET Project Office and FLUXNET DIS work closely together and conduct bi-monthly teleconference calls to ensure collaboration. Dr. Running will use FLUXNET data to validate selected EOS terrestrial data products and use FLUXNET data to validate terrestrial biogeochemical models. He has over twenty years of expertise in modeling net primary productivity and leaf area using satellite products and is one of the leaders of efforts combining remote sensing and tower-based flux information to assess regional and global carbon balances. Dr. Hollinger will supervise and be responsible for the network inter-comparability studies. Finally, Drs. Hollinger, Valentini, Yamamoto and Leuning are leaders of their respective regional flux networks. Their participation and cooperation in this project will be key in obtaining and synthesizing meaningful data sets of fluxes and ancillary variables for modelling exercises. All participants have much experience making micrometeorological carbon flux measurements for over ten years. . A postdoctoral fellow/research associate will be responsible for day-to-day activities and will serve as a liaison among the regional flux networks. At present Dr. Lianhong Gu fills this position. His duties include: communicating with network investigators to ensure a steady flow of data from each field site and ensuring that participants are documenting data and measurement systems. The postdoctoral scientist analyzes and report results from field inter-comparison studies, writes project reports and will be co-responsible for organizing data sets for the workshops. The postdoctoral scientist is also involved in constructing data sets for model tests and data synthesis. We are also soliciting funds to support travel costs for short-term Visiting Scientist to the FLUXNET project Office. Scientists in residence can work with the data sets to assess model algorithms, perform model tests etc. 2. Timeline Start-time Jan ‘02 Summer ‘02 Jan ‘03 Summer 03 Jan ‘04 Summer ‘04 Dec ‘04 Activity Start Project;; ensure data flow to network; Prepare biophysical models for application across functional types Recruit and Host Visiting scientist; International inter-calibration study; convene International FLUXNET Conference Compile metadata; develop carbon flux algorithms from data Recruit and Host Visiting scientist; conduct international inter-calibration study; convene Data Synthesis workshop Test of biophysical models across functional types Recruit and Host Visiting scientist; Conduct international intercalibration study; convene Model Validation and Intercomparison Workshop Products Edit Fluxnet Synthesis Issue of Ag. Forest Met Inter-calibration report, papers Annual Report Inter-calibration report, papers Annual Report Final Report