Aerodynamic canopy height (ha) is the effective height of vegetation canopy for its influence on atmospheric fluxes and is a key parameter of surface‐atmosphere coupling. However, methods to estimate ha from data are limited. This synthesis evaluates the applicability and robustness of the calculation of ha from eddy covariance momentum‐flux data. At 69 forest sites,… More
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In nearly all large-scale terrestrial ecosystem models, soil respiration is represented as a function of soil temperature. However, the relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature is highly variable across sites and there is often a pronounced hysteresis in the soil respiration-temperature relationship over the course of the growing season. This phenomenon indicates the importance… More
Global-scale studies suggest that dryland ecosystems dominate an increasing trend in the magnitude and interannual variability of the land CO2 sink. However, such analyses are poorly constrained by measured CO2 exchange in drylands. Here we address this observation gap with eddy covariance data from 25 sites in the water-limited Southwest region of North America with… More
It is necessary to partition eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide exchange into its offsetting gross fluxes, canopy photosynthesis, and ecosystem respiration, to understand the biophysical controls on the net fluxes. And independent estimates of canopy photosynthesis (G) and ecosystem respiration (R) are needed to validate and parametrize carbon cycle models that are coupled with… More
Climate variability and human activities interact to increase the abundance of woody plants in arid and semi-arid ecosystems worldwide. How woody plants interact with rainfall to influence patterns of soil moisture through time, at different depths in the soil profile and between neighboring landscape patches is poorly known. In a semi-arid mesquite savanna, we deployed… More
The eddy covariance technique is a widely used and accepted method to quantify ecosystem-scale mass and energy fluxes. Eddy covariance measurements of evaporation, also known as evapotranspiration, are used to determine local, regional and global water budgets, calibrate and validate land surface models, and acquire understanding of ecosystem processes. This paper assesses the accuracy of… More