CloudRoots-Amazon22: Integrating clouds with photosynthesis by crossing scales

How are rain forest photosynthesis and turbulent fluxes influenced by clouds? To what extent are clouds affected by local processes driven by rain forest energy, water, and carbon fluxes? These interrelated questions were the main drivers of the intensive field experiment CloudRoots-Amazon22 which took place at the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO)/Campina supersites in the Amazon rain forest during the dry season, in August 2022. CloudRoots-Amazon22 collected observational data to derive cause–effect relationships between processes occurring at the leaf level up to canopy scales in relation to the diurnal evolution of the clear-to-cloudy transition. First, we studied the impact of cloud and canopy radiation perturbations on the subdiurnal variability of stomatal conductance. Stoma opening is larger in the morning, modulated by the cloud optical thickness. Second, we combined 1-Hz frequency measurements of the stable isotopologues of carbon dioxide and water vapor with measurements of turbulence to determine carbon dioxide and water vapor sources and sinks within the canopy. Using scintillometer observations, we inferred 1-min sensible heat flux that responded within minutes to the cloud passages. Third, collocated profiles of state variables and greenhouse gases enabled us to determine the role of clouds in vertical transport. We then inferred, using canopy and upper-atmospheric observations and a parameterization, the cloud cover and cloud mass flux to establish causality between canopy and cloud processes. This shows the need for a comprehensive observational set to improve weather and climate model representations. Our findings contribute to advance our knowledge of the coupling between cloudy boundary layers and primary carbon productivity of the Amazon rain forest.