Flux frequency analysis of seasonally dry ecosystem fluxes in two unique biomes of Sonora Mexico
Abstract
Complex dynamics from the interactions of ecosystems processes makes difficult to model the behavior of ecosystems fluxes of carbon and water in response to the variation of environmental and biological drivers. Although process oriented ecosystem models are critical tools for studying land-atmosphere fluxes, its validity depends on the appropriate parameterization of equations describing temporal and spatial changes of model state variables and their interactions. This constraint often leads to discrepancies between model simulations and observed data that reduce models reliability especially in arid and semiarid ecosystems. In the semiarid north western Mexico, ecosystem processes are fundamentally controlled by the seasonality of water and the intermittence of rain pulses which are conditions that require calibration of specific fitting functions to describe the response of ecosystem variables (i.e. NEE, GPP, ET, respiration) to these wetting and drying periods. The goal is to find functions that describe the magnitude of ecosystem fluxes during individual rain pulses and the seasonality of the ecosystem. Relaying on five years of eddy covariance flux data of a tropical dry forest and a subtropical shrubland we present a flux frequency analysis that describe the variation of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 to highlight the relevance of pulse driven dynamics controlling this flux. Preliminary results of flux frequency analysis of NEE indicate that these ecosystems are strongly controlled by the frequency distribution of rain. Also, the output of fitting functions for NEE, GPP, ET and respiration using semi-empirical functions applied at specific rain pulses compared with season-long statistically generated simulations do not agree. Seasonality and the intrinsic nature of individual pulses have different effects on ecosystem flux responses. This suggests that relationships between the nature of seasonality and individual pulses can help improve the parameterization of process oriented ecosystem models.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUSM.U54A..08V
- Keywords:
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- 1813 HYDROLOGY / Eco-hydrology;
- 0439 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics