Isoprene fluxes vary seasonally with changes in environmental factors (e.g.,
solar radiation and temperature) and biological factors (e.g., leaf
phenology). However, our understanding of the seasonal ...patterns of isoprene
fluxes and the associated mechanistic controls is still limited, especially in
Amazonian evergreen forests. In this paper, we aim to connect intensive,
field-based measurements of canopy isoprene flux over a central Amazonian
evergreen forest site with meteorological observations and with tower-mounted camera leaf phenology to improve our understanding of patterns and causes
of isoprene flux seasonality. Our results demonstrate that the highest
isoprene emissions are observed during the dry and dry-to-wet transition
seasons, whereas the lowest emissions were found during the wet-to-dry
transition season. Our results also indicate that light and temperature cannot totally explain isoprene flux seasonality. Instead, the camera-derived
leaf area index (LAI) of recently mature leaf age class (e.g., leaf ages of
3–5 months) exhibits the highest correlation with observed isoprene flux
seasonality (R2=0.59, p<0.05). Attempting to better represent
leaf phenology in the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature
(MEGAN 2.1), we improved the leaf age algorithm by utilizing results from the
camera-derived leaf phenology that provided LAI categorized into three
different leaf ages. The model results show that the observations of
age-dependent isoprene emission capacity, in conjunction with camera-derived
leaf age demography, significantly improved simulations in terms of seasonal
variations in isoprene fluxes (R2=0.52, p<0.05). This study
highlights the importance of accounting for differences in isoprene emission
capacity across canopy leaf age classes and identifying forest adaptive
mechanisms that underlie seasonal variation in isoprene emissions in
Amazonia.
Summary
The numerical regional model (Eta) coupled with the Simplified Simple Biosphere Model (SSiB) was used to investigate the impact of land cover changes on the regional climate in Amazonia. Four ...13-month integrations were performed for the following scenarios: (a) no deforestation, (b) current conditions, (c) deforestation predicted for 2033, and (d) large scale deforestation. All initial and prescribed boundary conditions were kept identical for all integrations, except the land cover changes. The results show that during the dry season the post-deforestation decrease in root depth plays an important role in the energy budget, since there is less soil moisture available for evapotranspiration. In all scenarios there was a significant increase in the surface temperature, from 2.0 °C in the first scenario, up to 2.8 °C in the last one. In both the scenarios (b) and (c), the downward component of the surface solar radiation decreased due to an increase in the cloud cover over the deforested areas, which contributed to a further reduction of the net radiation absorbed at the surface. The cloud mechanism, where an increase in albedo is balanced by an increase in downward solar radiation, was not detected in any of these scenarios. In scenarios (a), (b) and (c), a negative feedback mechanism was observed in the hydrological cycle, with greater amounts of moisture being carried to the deforested areas. The increase in moisture convergence was greater than the reduction in evapotranspiration for both scenarios (b) and (c). This result, and the meso-scale thermodynamic processes caused an increase in precipitation. A different situation was observed in the large-scale deforestation scenario (d): a local increase of moisture convergence was observed, but not sufficiently intense to generate an increase in precipitation; the local evapotranspiration decrease was dominant in this scenario. Therefore, the partial deforestation in Amazonia can actually lead to an increase in precipitation locally. However, if the deforestation increases, this condition becomes unsustainable, leading to drier conditions and, consequently, to reduced precipitation in the region.
The Amazon Basin plays key roles in the carbon and water cycles, climate change, atmospheric chemistry, and biodiversity. It has already been changed significantly by human activities, and more ...pervasive change is expected to occur in the coming decades. It is therefore essential to establish long-term measurement sites that provide a baseline record of present-day climatic, biogeochemical, and atmospheric conditions and that will be operated over coming decades to monitor change in the Amazon region, as human perturbations increase in the future. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) has been set up in a pristine rain forest region in the central Amazon Basin, about 150 km northeast of the city of Manaus. Two 80 m towers have been operated at the site since 2012, and a 325 m tower is nearing completion in mid-2015. An ecological survey including a biodiversity assessment has been conducted in the forest region surrounding the site. Measurements of micrometeorological and atmospheric chemical variables were initiated in 2012, and their range has continued to broaden over the last few years. The meteorological and micrometeorological measurements include temperature and wind profiles, precipitation, water and energy fluxes, turbulence components, soil temperature profiles and soil heat fluxes, radiation fluxes, and visibility. A tree has been instrumented to measure stem profiles of temperature, light intensity, and water content in cryptogamic covers. The trace gas measurements comprise continuous monitoring of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ozone at five to eight different heights, complemented by a variety of additional species measured during intensive campaigns (e.g., VOC, NO, NO2, and OH reactivity). Aerosol optical, microphysical, and chemical measurements are being made above the canopy as well as in the canopy space. They include aerosol light scattering and absorption, fluorescence, number and volume size distributions, chemical composition, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations, and hygroscopicity. In this paper, we discuss the scientific context of the ATTO observatory and present an overview of results from ecological, meteorological, and chemical pilot studies at the ATTO site.
We studied damage accrual and factors determining development and progression of damage in an international cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients.
The Systemic Lupus International ...Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) Inception Cohort recruited patients within 15 months of developing four or more 1997 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for SLE; the SLICC/ACR damage index (SDI) was measured annually. We assessed relative rates of transition using maximum likelihood estimation in a multistate model. The Kaplan-Meier method estimated the probabilities for time to first increase in SDI score and Cox regression analysis was used to assess mortality.
We recruited 1722 patients; mean (SD) age 35.0 (13.4) years at cohort entry. Patients with damage at enrolment were more likely to have further worsening of SDI (SDI 0 vs ≥1; p<0.001). Age, USA African race/ethnicity, SLEDAI-2K score, steroid use and hypertension were associated with transition from no damage to damage, and increase(s) in pre-existing damage. Male gender (relative transition rates (95% CI) 1.48 (1.06 to 2.08)) and USA Caucasian race/ethnicity (1.63 (1.08 to 2.47)) were associated with SDI 0 to ≥1 transitions; Asian race/ethnicity patients had lower rates of new damage (0.60 (0.39 to 0.93)). Antimalarial use was associated with lower rates of increases in pre-existing damage (0.63 (0.44 to 0.89)). Damage was associated with future mortality (HR (95% CI) 1.46 (1.18 to 1.81) per SDI point).
Damage in SLE predicts future damage accrual and mortality. We identified several potentially modifiable risk factors for damage accrual; an integrated strategy to address these may improve long-term outcomes.
Soil temperatures depend on the soil heat flux, an important parameter in meteorological and plant growth‐energy balance models. Thus, they were measured, together with soil moisture contents, within ...the LBA program at forest (Reserva Jaru) and pasture (Fazenda Nossa Senhora) sites in Rondônia, Brazilian Amazonia during wet (February) and dry (August) periods of 1999. The wet period showed maxima of the heat flux into the soil around five to six times smaller at the forest than at the pasture, except for some spikes that are related to stronger solar forcing, such as those due to sunspecks in the forest. This pattern remained during the dry period, but with doubled maximum values. Also, the soil heat flux and the soil temperatures responded very significantly to the passage of cold fronts in both periods at both sites. Temperature profiles measured in the 0.10–0.40 m soil layer showed daily averages and ranges smaller at the forest than at the pasture. The daily average of the soil moisture content in the same layer, during the wet season, increased with depth at both sites, with consistently lower values at the forest. However, their ranges were smaller at the pasture, except for the 0.40 m depth. During the dry period, these ranges were much higher at the pasture, but with nearer average values. Finally, the computed daily apparent soil thermal diffusivities, volumetric heat contents, and thermal conductivities are presented, with the first ones crossed with the measured soil moisture content.
The aim of this study is to investigate the low‐frequency characteristics of diurnal turbulent scalar spectra and cospectra near the Amazonian rain forest during the wet and dry seasons. This is ...because the available turbulent data are often nonstationary and there is no clear spectral gap to separate data into “mean” and “turbulent” parts. Daubechies‐8 orthogonal wavelet is used to scale project turbulent signals in order to provide scale variance and covariance estimations. Based on the characteristics of the scale dependence of the scalar fluxes, some classification criteria of this scale dependence are investigated. The total scalar covariance of each 4‐hour data run is partitioned in categories of scale covariance contributions. This permits the study of some statistical characteristics of the scalar turbulent fields in each one of these classes and, thus, to give an insight and a possible explanation of the origin of the variability of the scalar fields close to the Amazonian forest. The results have shown that a two‐category classification is the most appropriate to describe the kind of observed fluctuations: “turbulent” and “mesoscale” contributions. The largest contribution of the sensible heat, latent heat, and CO2 covariance contributions occurs in the “turbulent” length scales. Mesoscale eddy motions, however, can contribute up to 30% of the total covariances under weak wind conditions. Analysis of scale correlation coefficient r(Tvq) between virtual temperature (Tv) and humidity (q) signals shows that the scale patterns of Tv and q variability are not similar and r(Tvq) < 1 for all analyzed scales. Scale humidity skewness calculations are negative during the dry season and positive during the wet season. This suggests that different boundary layer moisture regimes occur during the dry and wet seasons.
Lung-inspired, fractal flow-fields hold great potential in improving the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) by providing uniform gas distribution across the electrodes ...and ensuring minimum entropy production in the whole system. However, the inherent susceptibility of the fractal flow-fields to flooding renders their use inadequate at high humidity conditions. In-depth understanding of water management in lung-inspired flow-fields is indispensable for the implementation of alternative outlet channel geometries or engineered water removal strategies to alleviate flooding. Here, liquid water formation and transport across the lung-inspired and serpentine flow-field based PEMFCs are evaluated using neutron radiography. The results reveal a propensity to flooding in the interdigitated outlet channels of the fractal flow-field with N = 4 generations as a result of slow gas velocity and narrow channel dimensions, which leads to significant performance deterioration. Neutron images also elucidate the importance of ensuring a well-defined internal channel structure of the fractal flow-fields to prevent backflow of liquid water via wicking and capillary pressure build-up arising from the narrow inlet gas channels and hydrophobic gas diffusion layer.
•Neutron radiographs are presented for the lung-inspired and serpentine flow-fields.•A well-defined channel structure of the fractal flow-field is indispensable.•Water removal strategies required to alleviate flooding in the fractal flow-field.
The carbon and water cycles for a southwestern Amazonian forest site were investigated using the longest time series of fluxes of CO2 and water vapor ever reported for this site. The period from 2004 ...to 2010 included two severe droughts (2005 and 2010) and a flooding year (2009). The effects of such climate extremes were detected in annual sums of fluxes as well as in other components of the carbon and water cycles, such as gross primary production and water use efficiency. Gap-filling and flux-partitioning were applied in order to fill gaps due to missing data, and errors analysis made it possible to infer the uncertainty on the carbon balance. Overall, the site was found to have a net carbon uptake of ≈5 t C ha(-1) year(-1), but the effects of the drought of 2005 were still noticed in 2006, when the climate disturbance caused the site to become a net source of carbon to the atmosphere. Different regions of the Amazon forest might respond differently to climate extremes due to differences in dry season length, annual precipitation, species compositions, albedo and soil type. Longer time series of fluxes measured over several locations are required to better characterize the effects of climate anomalies on the carbon and water balances for the whole Amazon region. Such valuable datasets can also be used to calibrate biogeochemical models and infer on future scenarios of the Amazon forest carbon balance under the influence of climate change.
This paper describes recent developments in climate modeling at Météo-France related to land surface processes. The implementation of a simple land surface parameterization, Interactions between Soil ...Biosphere Atmosphere (ISBA), has gained from previous validations and calibrations at local scale against field datasets and from aggregation procedures devised to define effective land surface properties. Specific improvements for climate purposes are introduced: spatial variability of convective rainfall in canopy drainage estimation and subsurface gravitational percolation. The methodology used to derive climatological maps of land surface parameters at the grid-scale resolution of the model from existing databases for soil and vegetation types at global scale is described. A 3-yr integration for the present day climate with a T42L30 version of the climate model has been performed. Results obtained compare favorably with available observed climatologies related to the various components of the continental surface energy and water budgets. Differences are due mostly to a poor simulation of the precipitation field. However, some differences suggest specific improvements in the surface scheme concerning representation of the bare soil albedo, the surface runoff, and the soil moisture initialization. As a first step prior to tropical deforestation experiments presented in Part II, regional analyses over the Amazon forest indicate that the modeled evaporation and net radiation are in good agreement with data collected during the Amazon Region Micrometeorological Experiment campaign.
The Amazon is one of the few continental regions where atmospheric aerosol particles and their effects on climate are not dominated by anthropogenic sources. During the wet season, the ambient ...conditions approach those of the pristine pre-industrial era. We show that the fine submicrometer particles accounting for most cloud condensation nuclei are predominantly composed of secondary organic material formed by oxidation of gaseous biogenic precursors. Supermicrometer particles, which are relevant as ice nuclei, consist mostly of primary biological material directly released from rainforest biota. The Amazon Basin appears to be a biogeochemical reactor, in which the biosphere and atmospheric photochemistry produce nuclei for clouds and precipitation sustaining the hydrological cycle. The prevailing regime of aerosol-cloud interactions in this natural environment is distinctly different from polluted regions.
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