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Wildfires are common in boreal forests around the globe and strongly influence ecosystem processes. However, North American forests support more high-intensity crown fires than Eurasia, where lower-intensity surface fires are common. These two types of fire can result in different net effects on climate as a consequence of their contrasting impacts on terrestrial albedo and carbon stocks. Here we use remote-sensing imagery, climate reanalysis data and forest inventories to evaluate differences in boreal fire dynamics between North America and Eurasia and their key drivers. Eurasian fires were less intense, destroyed less live vegetation, killed fewer trees and generated a smaller negative shortwave forcing. As fire weather conditions were similar across continents, we suggest that different fire dynamics between the two continents resulted from their dominant tree species. In particular, species that have evolved to spread and be consumed by crown fires as part of their life cycle dominate North American boreal forests. In contrast, tree species that have evolved to resist and suppress crown fires dominate Eurasian boreal forests. We conclude that species-level traits must be considered in global evaluations of the effects of fire on emissions and climate.

The relative importance of dispersal limitation versus environmental filtering for community assembly has received much attention for macroorganisms. These processes have only recently been examined in microbial communities. Instead, microbial dispersal has mostly been measured as community composition change over space (i.e., distance decay). Here we directly examined fungal composition in airborne wind currents and soil fungal communities across a 40 000 km2 regional landscape to determine if dispersal limitation or abiotic factors were structuring soil fungal communities. Over this landscape, neither airborne nor soil fungal communities exhibited compositional differences due to geographic distance. Airborne fungal communities shifted temporally while soil fungal communities were correlated with abiotic parameters. These patterns suggest that environmental filtering may have the largest influence on fungal regional community assembly in soils, especially for aerially dispersed fungal taxa. Furthermore, we found evidence that dispersal of fungal spores differs between fungal taxa and can be both a stochastic and deterministic process. The spatial range of soil fungal taxa was correlated with their average regional abundance across all sites, which may imply stochastic dispersal mechanisms. Nevertheless, spore volume was also negatively correlated with spatial range for some species. Smaller volume spores may be adapted to long-range dispersal, or establishment, suggesting that deterministic fungal traits may also influence fungal distributions. Fungal life-history traits may influence their distributions as well. Hypogeous fungal taxa exhibited high local abundance, but small spatial ranges, while epigeous fungal taxa had lower local abundance, but larger spatial ranges. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to directly sample air dispersal and soil fungal communities simultaneously across a regional landscape. We provide some of the first evidence that soil fungal communities are mostly assembled through environmental filtering and experience little dispersal limitation.

Climate change has the potential to reduce surface-water supply by expanding the activity, density, or coverage of upland vegetation, although the likelihood and severity of this effect are poorly known. We quantified the extent to which vegetation and evapotranspiration (ET) are presently cold-limited in California's upper Kings River basin and used a space-for-time substitution to calculate the sensitivity of riverflow to vegetation expansion. We found that runoff is highly sensitive to vegetation migration; warming projected for 2100 could increase average basin-wide ET by 28% and decrease riverflow by 26%. Kings River basin ET currently peaks at midelevation and declines at higher elevation, creating a cold-limited zone above 2,400 m that is disproportionately important for runoff generation. Climate projections for 2085-2100 indicate as much as 4.1 °C warming in California's Sierra Nevada, which would expand high rates of ET 700-m upslope if vegetation maintains its current correlation with temperature. Moreover, we observed that the relationship between basin-wide ET and temperature is similar across the entire western slope of California's Sierra Nevada, implying that the risk of increasing montane ET with warming is widespread.

Vegetation-type conversions between grasslands and shrublands have occurred worldwide in semiarid regions over the last 150 years. Areas once covered by drought-deciduous shrubs in Southern California (coastal sage scrub) are converting to grasslands dominated by nonnative species. Increasing fire frequency, drought, and nitrogen deposition have all been hypothesized as causes of this conversion, though there is little direct evidence. We constructed rain-out shelters in a coastal sage scrub community following a wildfire, manipulated water and nitrogen input in a split-plot design, and collected annual data on community composition for four years. While shrub cover increased through time in all plots during the postfire succession, both drought and nitrogen significantly slowed recovery. Four years after the fire, average native shrub cover ranged from over 80% in water addition, ambient-nitrogen plots to 20% in water reduction, nitrogen addition plots. Nonnative grass cover was high following the fire and remained high in the water reduction plots through the third spring after the fire, before decreasing in the fourth year of the study. Adding nitrogen decreased the cover of native plants and increased the cover of nonnative grasses, but also increased the growth of one crown-sprouting shrub species. Our results suggest that extreme drought during postfire succession may slow or alter succession, possibly facilitating vegetation-type conversion of coastal sage scrub to grassland. Nitrogen addition slowed succession and, when combined with drought, significantly decreased native cover and increased grass cover. Fire, drought, and atmospheric N deposition are widespread aspects of environmental change that occur simultaneously in this system. Our results imply these drivers of change may reinforce each other, leading to a continued decline of native shrubs and conversion to annual grassland.

Wildland fires in Southern California can be divided into two categories: fall fires, which are typically driven by strong offshore Santa Ana winds, and summer fires, which occur with comparatively weak onshore winds and hot and dry weather. Both types of fire contribute significantly to annual burned area and economic loss. An improved understanding of the relationship between Southern California's meteorology and fire is needed to improve predictions of how fire will change in the future and to anticipate management needs. We used output from a regional climate model constrained by reanalysis observations to identify Santa Ana events and partition fires into those occurring during periods with and without Santa Ana conditions during 1959–2009. We then developed separate empirical regression models for Santa Ana and non-Santa Ana fires to quantify the effects of meteorology on fire number and size. These models explained approximately 58% of the seasonal and interannual variation in the number of Santa Ana fires and 36% of the variation in non-Santa Ana fires. The number of Santa Ana fires increased during years when relative humidity during Santa Ana events and fall precipitation were below average, indicating that fuel moisture is a key controller of ignition. Relative humidity strongly affected Santa Ana fire size. Cumulative precipitation during the previous three winters was significantly correlated with the number of non-Santa Ana fires, presumably through increased fine fuel density and connectivity between infrastructure and nearby vegetation. Both relative humidity and the preceding wet season precipitation influenced non-Santa Ana fire size. Regression models driven by meteorology explained 57% of the temporal variation in Santa Ana burned area and 22% of the variation in non-Santa Ana burned area. The area burned by non-Santa Ana fires has increased steadily by 1.7% year−1 since 1959 (p

Aim: Precipitation controls the production of semi-arid plants through various mechanisms that operate at a range of time-scales. Short-term variation in precipitation affects vegetation through adjustments in plant physiology and leaf phenology, whereas long-term effects are mediated by plant establishment and mortality, community composition and disturbance regimes. Our goal is to use remote sensing observations to separate the short- and long-term effects of variation in precipitation on ecosystem production. Location: California, USA. Methods: We used time series of gridded absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) to quantify the short- and long-term responses of diverse ecosystems to variation in precipitation across large productivity and precipitation gradients. We investigated the relationships between temporal sensitivity of APAR to interannual variation in precipitation and mean annual precipitation (MAP), ecosystem properties and disturbance. Results: APAR increased with precipitation both interannually within locations and across locations with MAP. The slope of the interannual relationship, which reflects the sensitivity of APAR to short-term fluctuations in precipitation, varied with climate, vegetation type and structure, and time since disturbance. The interannual APAR sensitivity decreased from c. 0.5 MJ m-2mm-1 at a MAP of 300mm year-1 to less than 0.05 MJ m-2mm-1 at 1000mm year-1. The slope of the spatial relationship, which reflects the long-term sensitivity of APAR to climate, decreased from c. 2.5 MJ m-2mm-1 at 300mm year-1 MAP to c. 0.6 MJ m-2mm-1 at 1000mm year-1. The initial physiological and leaf area effects of a precipitation shift were amplified five-fold over time by gradual changes in population density and species composition. Main conclusion: The impact of a hydroclimatic shift on the primary production, structure and function of California's terrestrial ecosystems depends heavily on time-scale and how rapidly changes in plant population density and community composition can occur. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Most North American forests are at some stage of post-disturbance regrowth, subject to a changing climate, and exhibit growth and mortality patterns that may not be closely coupled to annual environmental conditions. Distinguishing the possibly interacting effects of these processes is necessary to put short-term studies in a longer term context, and particularly important for the carbon-dense, fire-prone boreal forest. The goals of this study were to combine dendrochronological sampling, inventory records, and machine-learning algorithms to understand how tree growth and death have changed at one highly studied site (Northern Old Black Spruce, NOBS) in the central Canadian boreal forest. Over the 1999-2012 inventory period, mean tree diameter increased even as stand density and basal area declined significantly. Tree mortality averaged 1.4 ± 0.6% yr-(1), with most mortality occurring in medium-sized trees; new recruitment was minimal. There have been at least two, and probably three, significant influxes of new trees since stand initiation, but none in recent decades. A combined tree ring chronology constructed from sampling in 2001, 2004, and 2012 showed several periods of extreme growth depression, with increased mortality lagging depressed growth by ~5 years. Higher minimum and maximum air temperatures exerted a negative influence on tree growth, while precipitation and climate moisture index had a positive effect; both current- and previous-year data exerted significant effects. Models based on these variables explained 23-44% of the ring-width variability. We suggest that past climate extremes led to significant mortality still visible in the current forest structure, with decadal dynamics superimposed on slower patterns of fire and succession. These results have significant implications for our understanding of previous work at NOBS, the carbon sequestration capability of old-growth stands in a disturbance-prone landscape, and the sustainable management of regional forests in a changing climate.

Wildfire ignition requires a combination of an open spark, and suitable weather and fuel conditions. Models of fire occurrence and burned area provide a good understanding of the physical and climatic factors that constrain and promote fire spread and recurrence, but information on how humans influence ignition patterns is still lacking at a scale compatible with integrated fire management. We investigated the relative importance of the physical, climatic and human factors regulating ignition probability across Southern California's National Forests. A 30-year exploratory analysis of one-way relationships indicated that distance to a road, distance to housing and topographic slope were the major determinants of ignition frequency. We used logistic and Poisson regression analyses to model ignition occurrence and frequency as a function of the dominant covariates. The resulting models explained ∼70% of the spatial variability in ignition likelihood and 45% of the variability in ignition frequency. In turn, predicted ignition probability contributed to some of the spatial variability in burned area, particularly for summer fires. These models may enable estimates of fire ignition risk for the broader domain of Southern California and how this risk may change with future population and housing development. Our spatially explicit predictions may also be useful for strategic fire management in the region.

Trees and shrubs growing in California's mountains rely on deep roots to survive the hot and dry Mediterranean climate summer. The shallow montane soil cannot hold enough water to support summer transpiration, and plants must access deeper moisture from the weathered bedrock. We used the HYDRUS-1D model to simulate the moisture flux through the soil-plant continuum in Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains. The mechanisms facilitating deep water access are poorly understood, and it is possible that either or both hydraulic lift and capillary rise contribute to the survival and activity of trees and soil microorganisms. We modified HYDRUS to incorporate hydraulic lift and drove it with meteorological and physiological data. The modeled quantity of water lifted hydraulically ranged from near zero during the wet months to ~28 mm month-1 in midsummer. Likewise, modeled capillary rise was negligible during the winter and averaged ~15 mm month-1 during June through November. Both mechanisms provided water to support evapotranspiration during the dry months. Isotopic measurements of xylem water for eight shrub and tree species confirmed the importance of a deep source of water. Conventional and automated minirhizotron observations showed that fine-root and rhizomorph biomass remained relatively constant year-round, while mycorrhizal hyphae biomass varied markedly, peaking in the wet season and declining by ~70% in the dry season. Model results predict that hydraulic lift and capillary rise play key roles in Southern California's mountains: they support evapotranspiration and photosynthesis during the summer drought; they contribute to the year-round survival of fine roots and soil microorganisms. Key Points HYDRUS-1D model was used to model hydraulically lifted deep moisture Both hydraulically lift and capillary rise contributed to evapotranspiration Trees and mycorrhizal fungi must depend on the deep moisture in bedrock ©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

We investigated the seasonal patterns of Amazonian forest photosynthetic activity, and the effects thereon of variations in climate and land-use, by integrating data from a network of ground-based eddy flux towers in Brazil established as part of the 'Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia' project. We found that degree of water limitation, as indicated by the seasonality of the ratio of sensible to latent heat flux (Bowen ratio) predicts seasonal patterns of photosynthesis. In equatorial Amazonian forests (5° N-5° S), water limitation is absent, and photosynthetic fluxes (or gross ecosystem productivity, GEP) exhibit high or increasing levels of photosynthetic activity as the dry season progresses, likely a consequence of allocation to growth of new leaves. In contrast, forests along the southern flank of the Amazon, pastures converted from forest, and mixed forest-grass savanna, exhibit dry-season declines in GEP, consistent with increasing degrees of water limitation. Although previous work showed tropical ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) is driven by incoming radiation, GEP observations reported here surprisingly show no or negative relationships with photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Instead, GEP fluxes largely followed the phenology of canopy photosynthetic capacity (Pc), with only deviations from this primary pattern driven by variations in PAR. Estimates of leaf flush at three non-water limited equatorial forest sites peak in the dry season, in correlation with high dry season light levels. The higher photosynthetic capacity that follows persists into the wet season, driving high GEP that is out of phase with sunlight, explaining the negative observed relationship with sunlight. Overall, these patterns suggest that at sites where water is not limiting, light interacts with adaptive mechanisms to determine photosynthetic capacity indirectly through leaf flush and litterfall seasonality. These mechanisms are poorly represented in ecosystem models, and represent an important challenge to efforts to predict tropical forest responses to climatic variations. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Growing Typha latifolia leaf segments traverse a wide range of light environments as they are pushed upward from basal meristems through sediment, water, and dense litter and leaf layers. We used light transfer experiments in a greenhouse to investigate the photosynthetic acclimation of individual Typha leaf segments. Fully expanded leaf segments exhibited strong and symmetrical acclimation to increases or decreases in light. The photosynthetic light response curves of shade grown segments that were transferred to high light acclimated within 10-15 days to match those of segments that grew and remained in high light. Acclimation was highly localized; the light response curves of shade grown segments that remained shaded did not change, even as adjacent segments acclimated to high light. Leaf segments exposed to various treatments did not differ significantly in leaf mass per area; Typha leaves are apparently morphologically preformed to function in high light and allow high photosynthetic capacity, regardless of the growth environment. Likewise, nitrogen content did not differ significantly between treatments, and photosynthetic acclimation may involve a reallocation or activation of nitrogen within a leaf segment, rather than a net nitrogen translocation into or out of a segment. We interpret these patterns as an adaptive strategy that maximizes carbon gain by monocot leaves growing in a vertically heterogeneous light environment. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The role of the circadian clock in controlling the metabolism of entire trees has seldom been considered. We tested whether the clock influences nocturnal whole-tree water use. Whole-tree chambers allowed the control of environmental variables (temperature, relative humidity). Night-time stomatal conductance (gs ) and sap flow (Q) were monitored in 6- to 8-m-tall Eucalyptus globulus trees during nights when environmental variables were kept constant, and also when conditions varied with time. Artificial neural networks were used to quantify the relative importance of circadian regulation of gs and Q. Under a constant environment, gs and Q declined from 0 to 6 h after dusk, but increased from 6 to 12 h after dusk. While the initial decline could be attributed to multiple processes, the subsequent increase is most consistent with circadian regulation of gs and Q. We conclude that endogenous regulation of gs is an important driver of night-time Q under natural environmental variability. The proportion of nocturnal Q variation associated with circadian regulation (23-56%) was comparable to that attributed to vapor pressure deficit variation (25-58%). This study contributes to our understanding of the linkages between molecular and cellular processes related to circadian regulation, and whole-tree processes related to ecosystem gas exchange in the field.

Rates of ecosystem processes such as decomposition are likely to change as a result of human impacts on the environment. In southern California, climate change and nitrogen (N) deposition in particular may alter biological communities and ecosystem processes. These drivers may affect decomposition directly, through changes in abiotic conditions, and indirectly through changes in plant and decomposer communities. To assess indirect effects on litter decomposition, we reciprocally transplanted microbial communities and plant litter among control and treatment plots (either drought or N addition) in a grassland ecosystem. We hypothesized that drought would reduce decomposition rates through moisture limitation of decomposers and reductions in plant litter quality before and during decomposition. In contrast, we predicted that N deposition would stimulate decomposition by relieving N limitation of decomposers and improving plant litter quality. We also hypothesized that adaptive mechanisms would allow microbes to decompose litter more effectively in their native plot and litter environments. Consistent with our first hypothesis, we found that drought treatment reduced litter mass loss from 20.9% to 15.3% after six months. There was a similar decline in mass loss of litter inoculated with microbes transplanted from the drought treatment, suggesting a legacy effect of drought driven by declines in microbial abundance and possible changes in microbial community composition. Bacterial cell densities were up to 86% lower in drought plots and at least 50% lower on litter derived from the drought treatment, whereas fungal hyphal lengths increased by 13–14% in the drought treatment. Nitrogen effects on decomposition rates and microbial abundances were weaker than drought effects, although N addition significantly altered initial plant litter chemistry and litter chemistry during decomposition. However, we did find support for microbial adaptation to N addition with N-derived microbes facilitating greater mass loss in N plots than in control plots. Our results show that environmental changes can affect rates of ecosystem processes directly through abiotic changes and indirectly through microbial abundances and communities. Therefore models of ecosystem response to global change may need to represent microbial biomass and community composition to make accurate predictions.

Climate change is expected to move the spatial patterns of temperature and water availability poleward and upslope, with concomitant shifts in vegetation distribution. Vegetation growing near its southern or low-elevation range limit may prove especially susceptible to mortality and displacement. We investigated the controls on Gross Primary Production (GPP) by an oak and pine stand located just above the lower forest limit in Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains. The local climate was montane Mediterranean, and the stand experienced extensive mortality in the early 1990s and from 2002 to 2004 coincident with extended droughts. The maintenance of high rates of CO2 uptake in winter, and access to water deep in the soil column in summer, allowed for a year-round growing season. The evergreens at the site remained photosynthetically active year-round despite frequent freezing nights. High rates of CO2 uptake were observed at air temperatures below 8°C, which is colder than has been reported for other ecosystems. Winter cold exerted a minor limitation on GPP, and winter warming would have a small effect on GPP. Vegetation withdrew water from the soil, saprolite, and fractured granitic bedrock to support transpiration and CO2 uptake during the dry summer, which further expanded the growing season. Access to a reliable supply of moisture deep in the soil and regolith appears critical for the survival of large trees at the site. These trees may prove vulnerable to climate change if increasing evaporation rates or interannual precipitation variability causes a more frequent or severe depletion of deep regolith moisture. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

We evaluate a new approach to estimate regional evapotranspiration (ET) across a montane, Mediterranean climate gradient in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains of Southern California. Spatially distributed evaporative fraction (EF) measurements were made monthly from October 2008 to September 2009 at 54 locations across an elevational gradient using a mobile measurement platform, called the Regional Evaporative Fraction Energy Balance (REFEB) method. We used these measurements and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations to derive EF at a regional scale. We converted EF to monthly ET using remote-sensing based observations of available energy. We compared the REFEB ET estimates, along with modified Priestly–Taylor (PT) ET estimates driven by MODIS data against four eddy covariance (EC) towers and eight gauged catchments. Both of the satellite-based ET estimates were highly correlated with tower ET observations (r 2 = 0.66 for REFEB and 0.95 for PT). The PT MODIS approach overestimated ET compared to precipitation estimates and stream gauge measurements, while REFEB ET was moderately lower than PT ET. The annual regional REFEB ET (193 mm) was 87 mm less than precipitation (280 mm). REFEB ET underestimated EC tower ET (regression slope = 0.78, p

Rising temperatures and declining water availability have influenced the ecological function of mountain forests over the past half-century. For instance, warming in spring and summer and shifts towards earlier snowmelt are associated with an increase in wildfire activity and tree mortality in mountain forests in the western United States. Temperature increases are expected to continue during the twenty-first century in mountain ecosystems across the globe, with uncertain consequences. Here, we examine the influence of interannual variations in snowpack accumulation on forest greenness in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, between 1982 and 2006. Using observational records of snow accumulation and satellite data on vegetation greenness we show that vegetation greenness increases with snow accumulation. Indeed, we show that variations in maximum snow accumulation explain over 50% of the interannual variability in peak forest greenness across the Sierra Nevada region. The extent to which snow accumulation can explain variations in greenness varies with elevation, reaching a maximum in the water-limited mid-elevations, between 2,000 and 2,600a €‰m. Ina situ measurements of carbon uptake and snow accumulation along an elevational transect in the region confirm the elevation dependence of this relationship. We suggest that mid-elevation mountain forest ecosystems could prove particularly sensitive to future increases in temperature and concurrent changes in snow accumulation and melt.

Climate change in semi-arid, midlatitude mountain environments is expected to shift the spatial patterns of temperature, water availability, and vegetation upslope. Vegetation growing near its low-elevation range limit may prove especially vulnerable to mortality and decline. We investigated the altitudinal pattern of conifer mortality that occurred from 2002 to 2004 in Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains. We found that conifer mortality was focused in the lower portion of the midmontane conifer range, which drove the midmontane conifer distribution upslope. We investigated past reports of conifer mortality in Southern California by searching historical newspaper accounts. We found evidence of previous episodes of conifer mortality that coincided with past droughts, and which may have caused vegetation redistribution in the past. We interpret the early 2000s mortality and associated vegetation redistribution as a response to natural decadal to centennial climate variability. Moreover, we hypothesize this response mode will dominate the early impact of global climate change on semi-arid forest, which, in turn, may complicate efforts to distinguish between ecological changes attributable to natural climate variability and those attributable to global climate change.

It is often assumed that daytime patterns of ecosystem carbon assimilation are mostly driven by direct physiological responses to exogenous environmental cues. Under limited environmental variability, little variation in carbon assimilation should thus be expected unless endogenous plant controls on carbon assimilation, which regulate photosynthesis in time, are active. We evaluated this assumption with eddy flux data, and we selected periods when net ecosystem exchange (NEE) was decoupled from environmental variability in seven sites from highly contrasting biomes across a 74° latitudinal gradient over a total of 36 site-years. Under relatively constant conditions of light, temperature, and other environmental factors, significant diurnal NEE oscillations were observed at six sites, where daily NEE variation was between 20% and 90% of that under variable environmental conditions. These results are consistent with fluctuations driven by the circadian clock and other endogenous processes. Our results open a promising avenue of research for a more complete understanding of ecosystem fluxes that integrates from cellular to ecosystem processes. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Severity of burning can influence multiple aspects of forest composition, carbon cycling, and climate forcing. We quantified how burn severity affected vegetation recovery and albedo change during early succession in Canadian boreal regions by combining satellite observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Canadian Large Fire Database. We used the MODIS-derived difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and initial changes in spring albedo as measures of burn severity. We found that the most severe burns had the greatest reduction in summer MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) in the first year after fire, indicating greater loss of vegetation cover. By 5–8 years after fire, summer EVI for all severity classes had recovered to within 90%–108% of prefire levels. Spring and summer albedo progressively increased during the first 7 years after fire, with more severely burned areas showing considerably larger postfire albedo increases during spring and more rapid increases during summer as compared with moderate- and low-severity burns. After 5–7 years, increases in spring albedo above prefire levels were considerably larger in high-severity burns (0.20 ± 0.06; defined by dNBR percentiles greater than 75%) as compared to changes observed in moderate- (0.16 ± 0.06; for dNBR percentiles between 45% and 75%) or low-severity burns (0.13 ± 0.06; for dNBR percentiles between 20% and 45%). The sensitivity of spring albedo to dNBR was similar in all ecozones and for all vegetation types along gradients of burn severity. These results suggest carbon losses associated with increases in burn severity observed in some areas of boreal forests may be at least partly offset, in terms of climate impacts, by increases in negative forcing associated with changes in surface albedo.

Forest disturbances are major sources of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and therefore impact global climate. Biogeophysical attributes, such as surface albedo (reflectivity), further control the climate-regulating properties of forests. Using both tower-based and remotely sensed data sets, we show that natural disturbances from wildfire, beetle outbreaks, and hurricane wind throw can significantly alter surface albedo, and the associated radiative forcing either offsets or enhances the CO 2 forcing caused by reducing ecosystem carbon sequestration over multiple years. In the examined cases, the radiative forcing from albedo change is on the same order of magnitude as the CO 2 forcing. The net radiative forcing resulting from these two factors leads to a local heating effect in a hurricane-damaged mangrove forest in the subtropics, and a cooling effect following wildfire and mountain pine beetle attack in boreal forests with winter snow. Although natural forest disturbances currently represent less than half of gross forest cover loss, that area will probably increase in the future under climate change, making it imperative to represent these processes accurately in global climate models. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Deforestation in mid- to high latitudes is hypothesized to have the potential to cool the Earth's surface by altering biophysical processes. In climate models of continental-scale land clearing, the cooling is triggered by increases in surface albedo and is reinforced by a land albedo-sea ice feedback. This feedback is crucial in the model predictions; without it other biophysical processes may overwhelm the albedo effect to generate warming instead. Ongoing land-use activities, such as land management for climate mitigation, are occurring at local scales (hectares) presumably too small to generate the feedback, and it is not known whether the intrinsic biophysical mechanism on its own can change the surface temperature in a consistent manner. Nor has the effect of deforestation on climate been demonstrated over large areas from direct observations. Here we show that surface air temperature is lower in open land than in nearby forested land. The effect is 0.85 ± 0.44 K (mean ± one standard deviation) northwards of 45° N and 0.21 ± 0.53 K southwards. Below 35° N there is weak evidence that deforestation leads to warming. Results are based on comparisons of temperature at forested eddy covariance towers in the USA and Canada and, as a proxy for small areas of cleared land, nearby surface weather stations. Night-time temperature changes unrelated to changes in surface albedo are an important contributor to the overall cooling effect. The observed latitudinal dependence is consistent with theoretical expectation of changes in energy loss from convection and radiation across latitudes in both the daytime and night-time phase of the diurnal cycle, the latter of which remains uncertain in climate models.

The δ¹⁸O and δD composition of water pools (leaf, root, standing water and soil water) and fluxes [transpiration (T), evaporation (E)] were used to understand ecohydrological processes in a managed Typha latifolia L. freshwater marsh. We observed isotopic steady-state T and deep rooting in Typha. The isotopic mass balance of marsh standing water showed that E accounted for 3% of the total water loss, T accounted for 17% and subsurface drainage (D) accounted for the majority (80%). There was a vertical gradient in water vapour content and isotopic composition within and above the canopy sufficient for constructing an isotopic mass balance of water vapour during some sampling periods. During these periods, the proportion of T in evapotranspiration (T/ET) was between 56 ± 17% and 96 ± 67%, and the estimated error was relatively high (>37%) because of non-local, background sources in vapour. Independent estimates of T/ET using eddy covariance measurements yielded similar mean values during the Typha growing season. The various T/ET estimates agreed that T was the dominant source of marsh vapour loss in the growing season. The isotopic mass balance of water vapour yielded reasonable results, but the mass balance of standing water provided more definitive estimates of water losses.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a major pathway for water loss from many ecosystems, and its seasonal variation affects soil moisture and net ecosystem CO2 exchange. We developed an algorithm to estimate ET using a semi-empirical Priestley–Taylor (PT) approach, which can be applied at a range of spatial scales. We estimated regional net radiation (Rnet) at monthly time scales using MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedo and land surface temperature. Good agreement was found between satellite-based estimates of monthly Rnet and field-measured Rnet, with a RMSE of less than 30 W m− 2. An adjustable PT coefficient was parameterized as a function of leaf area index and soil moisture based on observations from 27 AmeriFlux eddy covariance sites. The biome specific optimization using tower-based observations performed well, with a RMSE of 17 W m− 2 and a correlation of 0.90 for predicted monthly latent heat. We implemented the approach within the hydrology module of the CASA biogeochemical model, and used it to estimate ET at a 1 km spatial resolution for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The RMSE of modeled ET was reduced to 21.1 mm mon− 1, compared to 27.1 mm mon− 1 in the original CASA model. The monthly ET rates averaged over the Mississippi River basin were similar to those derived using GRACE satellite measurements and river discharge data. ET varied substantially over the CONUS, with annual mean values of 110 ± 76 mm yr− 1 in deserts, 391 ± 176 mm yr− 1 in savannas and grasslands, and 840 ± 234 mm yr− 1 in broadleaf forests. The PT coefficient was the main driver for the spatial variation of ET in arid areas, whereas Rnet controlled ET when mean annual precipitation was higher than approximately 400 mm yr− 1.

Rapid and accurate assessment of global forest cover change is needed to focusconservation efforts and to better understand how deforestation is contributing to thebuildup of atmospheric CO2. Here we examined different ways to use land surfacetemperature (LST) to detect changes in tropical forest cover. In our analysis we usedmonthly 0.05° × 0.05° Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)observations of LST and Program for the Estimation of Deforestation in the BrazilianAmazon (PRODES) estimates of forest cover change. We also compared MODIS LSTobservations with an independent estimate of forest cover loss derived from MODISand Landsat observations. Our study domain of approximately 10° × 10° included theBrazilian state of Mato Grosso. For optimal use of LST data to detect changes in tropicalforest cover in our study area, we found that using data sampled during the end of the dryseason (∼1–2 months after minimum monthly precipitation) had the greatest predictiveskill. During this part of the year, precipitation was low, surface humidity was at aminimum, and the difference between day and night LST was the largest. We used thisinformation to develop a simple temporal sampling algorithm appropriate for use inpantropical deforestation classifiers. Combined with the normalized difference vegetationindex, a logistic regression model using day‐night LST did moderately well at predictingforest cover change. Annual changes in day‐night LST decreased during 2006–2009relative to 2001–2005 in many regions within the Amazon, providing independentconfirmation of lower deforestation levels during the latter part of this decade as reported by PRODES.

We measured the evaporative fraction (EF) across a semiarid elevation gradient in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains of southern California using the Regional Evaporative Fraction Energy Balance platform and four eddy covariance towers. We compared our measurements to precipitation estimates and satellite observations of vegetation indices to assess the seasonal and interannual controls of precipitation and vegetation on surface energy exchanges. Precipitation amount and timing had the largest effect on evaporative fraction, with vegetation having a relatively greater importance at higher elevations than lower elevations. Vegetation cover was linearly related to mean annual EF, but did not predict seasonal variation in EF in most of the study area's ecosystems. Multiyear vegetation observations show that vegetation density increases in a stepwise pattern with precipitation, probably due to shifts in dominant plant communities. Precipitation is a more important factor in controlling EF than temperature. Possible future climate change, including decreases in precipitation amount and increases in variability, could decrease vegetation cover, thus reducing EF and increasing albedo.

More than half of the solar energy absorbed by land surfaces is currently used to evaporate water. Climate change is expected to intensify the hydrological cycle and to alter evapotranspiration, with implications for ecosystem services and feedback to regional and global climate. Evapotranspiration changes may already be under way, but direct observational constraints are lacking at the global scale. Until such evidence is available, changes in the water cycle on land−a key diagnostic criterion of the effects of climate change and variability−remain uncertain. Here we provide a data-driven estimate of global land evapotranspiration from 1982 to 2008, compiled using a global monitoring network, meteorological and remote-sensing observations, and a machine-learning algorithm. In addition, we have assessed evapotranspiration variations over the same time period using an ensemble of process-based land-surface models. Our results suggest that global annual evapotranspiration increased on average by 7.1 ± 1.0 millimetres per year per decade from 1982 to 1997. After that, coincident with the last major El Niño event in 1998, the global evapotranspiration increase seems to have ceased until 2008. This change was driven primarily by moisture limitation in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly Africa and Australia. In these regions, microwave satellite observations indicate that soil moisture decreased from 1998 to 2008. Hence, increasing soil-moisture limitations on evapotranspiration largely explain the recent decline of the global land-evapotranspiration trend. Whether the changing behaviour of evapotranspiration is representative of natural climate variability or reflects a more permanent reorganization of the land water cycle is a key question for earth system science.

Experimental manipulations provide a powerful tool for understanding an ecosystem's response to environmental perturbation. We combined paired eddy covariance towers with an experimental manipulation of water availability to determine the response of marsh carbon balance to drought. We monitored the Net Ecosystem Exchange of CO2 (NEE) in two ponds from 2004 to 2009 at the San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh (SJFM), and subjected one of the ponds to a yearlong drought treatment in 2007. The two ponds experienced similar flooding and environmental regimes before and after the drought, ensuring that differences between ponds were largely attributable to the 2007 drought. Drought substantially reduced surface greenness, as measured by the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and photosynthetic carbon sequestration, primarily by inhibiting leaf area development. Respiratory carbon losses were less influenced by drought than photosynthetic carbon gains. The effect of the drought lasted several years, with delayed leaf area development and peak carbon uptake rates during the subsequent year, and reduced leaf area for a couple of years. The combined effect of the drought and legacy effects created an overall loss of carbon that was equivalent to 4 years of the maximum annual carbon sequestration observed over a decade. Our results indicate that drought can have long-term impacts on ecosystem carbon balance and that future projected drought increases in Southern California will have a negative impact on marsh carbon sequestration.

Aim: The controls of gross radiation use efficiency (RUE), the ratio between gross primary productivity (GPP) and the radiation intercepted by terrestrial vegetation, and its spatial and temporal variation are not yet fully understood. Our objectives were to analyse and synthesize the spatial variability of GPP and the spatial and temporal variability of RUE and its climatic controls for a wide range of vegetation types. Location: A global range of sites from tundra to rain forest. Methods: We analysed a global dataset on photosynthetic uptake and climatic variables from 35 eddy covariance (EC) flux sites spanning between 100 and 2200 mm mean annual rainfall and between -13 and 26°C mean annual temperature. RUE was calculated from the data provided by EC flux sites and remote sensing (MODIS). Results: Rainfall and actual evapotranspiration (AET) positively influenced the spatial variation of annual GPP, whereas temperature only influenced the GPP of forests. Annual and maximum RUE were also positively controlled primarily by annual rainfall. The main control parameters of the growth season variation of gross RUE varied for each ecosystem type. Overall, the ratio between actual and potential evapotranspiration and a surrogate for the energy balance explained a greater proportion of the seasonal variation of RUE than the vapour pressure deficit (VPD), AET and precipitation. Temperature was important for determining the intra-annual variability of the RUE at the coldest energy-limited sites. Main conclusions: Our analysis supports the idea that the annual functioning of vegetation that is adapted to its local environment is more constrained by water availability than by temperature. The spatial variability of annual and maximum RUE can be largely explained by annual precipitation, more than by vegetation type. The intra-annual variation of RUE was mainly linked to the energy balance and water availability along the climatic gradient. Furthermore, we showed that intra-annual variation of gross RUE is only weakly influenced by VPD and temperature, contrary to what is frequently assumed. Our results provide a better understanding of the spatial and temporal controls of the RUE and thus could lead to a better estimation of ecosystem carbon fixation and better modelling. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

We agree with some aspects of Bouldin [2009] andwelcome the opportunity to clarify aspects of Fellows andGoulden [2008, hereafter F-G]. Several of Bouldin’s claimsreflect his interpretation of the core message of our paper.Bouldin feels our main message was that ‘‘fire suppression,independent of logging, has brought about a decrease inlive, aboveground tree carbon via increased mortality oflarge trees in western U.S. forests’’. Our intended messagewas that we found no evidence that fire suppression has ledto a large increase in forest biomass, and a suggestion, alongwith a hypothesized mechanism, that fire suppression hasled to a loss of biomass. We feel Bouldin’s interpretation isinconsistent with our paper, which repeatedly returns to thequestion of whether fire suppression has increased carbonstocks, and discusses the possibility of a general loss ofcarbon with fire suppression as a hypothesis rather thanstatement of fact. Our paper generated popular press, someof which may have overemphasized the possibility ofcarbon loss, and Bouldin may be reacting to some of thesearticles.

A new methodology for establishing the spatial representativeness of tower albedo measurements that are routinely used in validation of satellite retrievals from global land surface albedo and reflectance anisotropy products is presented. This method brings together knowledge of the intrinsic biophysical properties of a measurement site, and the surrounding landscape to produce a number of geostatistical attributes that describe the overall variability, spatial extent, strength of the spatial correlation, and spatial structure of surface albedo patterns at separate seasonal periods throughout the year. Variogram functions extracted from Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) retrievals of surface albedo using multiple spatial and temporal thresholds were used to assess the degree to which a given point (tower) measurement is able to capture the intrinsic variability of the immediate landscape extending to a satellite pixel. A validation scheme was implemented over a wide range of forested landscapes, looking at both deciduous and coniferous sites, from tropical to boreal ecosystems. The experiment focused on comparisons between tower measurements of surface albedo acquired at local solar noon and matching retrievals from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Collection V005) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/albedo algorithm. Assessments over a select group of field stations with comparable landscape features and daily retrieval scenarios further demonstrate the ability of this technique to identify measurement sites that contain the intrinsic spatial and seasonal features of surface albedo over sufficiently large enough footprints for use in modeling and remote sensing studies. This approach, therefore, improves our understanding of product uncertainty both in terms of the representativeness of the field data and its relationship to the larger satellite pixel.

Leaf area index (LAI) is a key parameter that affects the surface fluxes of energy, mass, and momentum over vegetated lands, but observational measurements are scarce, especially in remote areas with complex canopy structure. In this paper we present an indirect method to calculate the LAI based on the analyses of histograms of hemispherical photographs. The optimal threshold value (OTV), the gray-level required to separate the background (sky) and the foreground (leaves), was analytically calculated using the entropy crossover method (Sahoo, P.K., Slaaf, D.W., Albert, T.A., 1997. Threshold selection using a minimal histogram entropy difference. Optical Engineering 36(7) 1976–1981). The OTV was used to calculate the LAI using the well-known gap fraction method. This methodology was tested in two different ecosystems, including Amazon forest and pasturelands in Brazil. In general, the error between observed and calculated LAI was ∼6%. The methodology presented is suitable for the calculation of LAI since it is responsive to sky conditions, automatic, easy to implement, faster than commercially available software, and requires less data storage.

Regional estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) are needed for environmental analysis and management purposes, yet can be difficult to obtain. Current methods for determining regional ET have spatial, temporal, methodological, and/or logistical limitations that affect their usefulness. To address these gaps, we developed a surface mobile measurement technique, the Regional Evaporative Fraction Energy Balance platform (REFEB), which measures evaporative fraction (EF) and water use efficiency (WUE) using a truck operating on a public right of way. REFEB can measure EF and WUE at 25 or more locations per day, which allows for rapid, dense, and spatially distributed sampling of fields across a region. We assessed the accuracy of the field measurements of EF and WUE with REFEB by comparing them to an Eddy covariance (EC) and Bowen ratio energy balance (BREB) tower. This site validation showed that REFEB has error and uncertainty similar to previous BREB approaches. We then used empirical relationships between field measurements and remote sensing vegetation indices to derive regional maps of EF. We combined these EF maps with satellite observations of net radiation to derive monthly and annual calculations of ET at a 250 m resolution during calendar year 2004 in the Imperial Valley, California, a major agricultural region that is dependent upon irrigation and which has a well constrained water budget. We then summed ET for the Imperial Valley and compared the result to a surface water budget based on irrigation and drainage measurements, which showed good annual and seasonal agreement. These results indicate REFEB produces accurate field measurements of EF and WUE, which can be scaled to estimate regional ET at time scales ranging from less than a week to annual sums.

Researchers have a poor understanding of the mechanisms that allow freshwater marshes to achieve rates of net primary production (NPP) that are higher than those reported for most other types of ecosystems. We used an 8-year record of the gross primary production (GPP) and NPP at the San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh (SJFM) in Southern California to determine the relative importance of GPP and carbon use efficiency (CUE; the ratio of total NPP to GPP calculated as NPP GPP−1) in determining marsh NPP. GPP was calculated from continuous eddy covariance measurements and NPP was calculated from annual harvests. The NPP at the SJFM was typical of highly productive freshwater marshes, while the GPP was similar to that reported for other ecosystem types, including some with comparatively low NPPs. NPP was weakly related to GPP in the same year, and was better correlated with the GPP summed from late in the previous year's growing season to early in the current growing season. This lag was attributed to carbohydrate reserves, which supplement carbon for new leaf growth in the early growing season of the current year. The CUE at the SJFM for the 8-year period was 0.61 ± 0.05. This CUE is larger than that reported for tropical, temperate, and boreal ecosystems, and indicates that high marsh NPP is attributable to a high CUE and not a high GPP. This study underscores the importance of autotrophic respiration and carbon allocation in determining marsh NPP.