Exploring the Impact of Phenology on Autumn Land/Atmosphere Interactions

Keywords: phenology, land-atmosphere interations, autumn
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 4/10/2021 08:00 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/10/2021 09:15 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 24

Abstract

The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors (CHEESEHEAD 2019) was a National Science Foundation funded intensive field campaign designed specifically to address long-standing puzzles regarding the role of atmospheric boundary-layer responses to scales of spatial heterogeneity in surface-atmosphere heat and water exchanges. The July-October field campaign in 2019 (held in an approximately 10 x 10 square km area centered on the WLEF tall carbon flux tower near Park Falls, WI) allowed observing the evolution of the land surface from latent-heat flux dominated to sensible-heat flux dominated as vegetation senesced sequentially across the landscape. As part of this project, autumn tree leaf color and fall phenology was recorded (at least twice weekly over six weeks during the senescence period) for a group of just over 200 individuals that were representative of the major species. Initial results show useful correspondence among these phenological observations, NEE carbon flux measurements, and fixed camera imagery analyses, bolstering the use of phenology as a broad indicator of autumn atmosphere-biosphere interactions.