Canopy litterfall is an important component of net primary productivity (NPP) in forests, but the climatic and biotic controls on its interannual fluctuation remain poorly understood. In this study, we quantified the interannual variation in and the influencing factors of the canopy litterfall with 45 litter traps in nine plots for 12 years (2008 − 2019) in a temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest

In order to determine the effects of leaf temperature, gas exchange, and photosynthesis on plant growth and productivity under greenhouse conditions, predictions at a high spatial and temporal resolution are essential. In addition, simulations of light and thermal microclimate conditions are needed for the modelling of physiological processes. To the best of our knowledge, these physiological processes

High temperature (HT) and drought (D) have detrimental effects on growth and phenology that result in reductions of the yields of agricultural crops. Nevertheless, homeostatic ranges of tolerance exist. Recent analysis of survey data and simulations suggest US wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yields remain relatively stable under irrigation in the range of 35°– 40°C. Applying analogue statistical procedures

Exploring interannual variation (IAV) of terrestrial carbon cycle is crucial for understanding the climate-carbon cycle feedback. However, model simulations of IAV in carbon pools are highly sensitive to parameterization. Although researches indicate that parameters vary as environment changes, most terrestrial carbon cycle models apply time-invariant parameters, leading to uncertainty in reproducing

Salt marshes constitute an important terrestrial-aquatic interface that remains underrepresented in Earth System Models due to constraining biophysical controls and spatially limited land cover. One promising approach to improve representativeness is the application of proximal remote sensing to generate phenological information, yet we lack detailed knowledge on how proximal sensors and indices perform

The influence of climate on seed or fruit production and tree growth is a central question in forest ecology, with a key role on forest dynamics. However, the mechanisms linking inter- and intra-annual climate variability, fruiting and growth remain poorly understood, although they seem to be largely species-specific. The resource-matching hypothesis posits that fruit production responds to annual

Groundwater drought could cause tremendous damage to the social-economy via land subsidence, seawater intrusion and permanent loss of aquifer storage capacity, and often show strong association with meteorological drought. To date, the threshold for meteorological drought triggering groundwater drought and its dominant factors have been not clarified, which inhibits the effective groundwater drought

Daily actual evapotranspiration (ET) and its components – soil evaporation (E) and vegetation transpiration (T) – play a key role in water resource management of irrigated areas. Nevertheless, due to large uncertainties in the parameterization of the resistances in irrigated areas, traditional ET models do not always provide accurate ET estimates, especially for its components. This uncertainty is

Lemon (Citrus limon) is a fruit tree with major agricultural importance around the Mediterranean basin and is considered to be highly drought resistant. In this study, we tested the effect of two months summer-desiccation on physiological and yield parameters of mature lemon trees growing under Mediterranean climate during three consecutive years. We also examined the efficiency of current irrigation

Water stress limits wheat growth and the yield on rain-fed sodic soils. Appropriate selection of traits and novel methods are required to forecast yield and to identify water stress tolerant wheat genotypes on sodic soils. In this study, we proposed a thermal remote sensing and machine learning-based approach to help predict the biomass and grain yields of wheat genotypes grown with variable water

Understanding and quantifying the influence of tree structure and ground vegetation on albedo in the boreal-alpine treeline is urgently needed to assess and predict the biophysical climatic feedback effect of forest- and treeline expansion. Fine-spatial resolution in-situ radiation measurements sensitive to small-scale variability enable precise albedo estimation for complex heterogeneous landscapes

Anthropogenic climate change pushes forest ecosystems globally beyond their limits. Widespread events of forest die-off have been attributed to direct and indirect impacts of increasingly frequent and intense droughts. Here, we focus on an extensive mortality event in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica (L.)) forests in Germany, following the successive 2018

Biodegradable film mulching (BFM) in various crops is a good alternative to plastic film mulching (PFM). However, the difference in field water consumption between BFM and PFM has not been fully investigated. A four-year experiment with an improved evapotranspiration (ET) model (BSW) was performed to systematically evaluate and compare the effects of BFM, PFM, and no film mulching (NFM) on ET dynamics

Land surface albedo, as an essential biophysical factor, plays an essential role in surface energy balance. Identifying environmental drivers of albedo in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) helps to understand the role of the “third pole” in responding to environmental change and regulating regional climate. Based on remotely sensed data of albedo, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), snow cover, and

Gross primary production (GPP) is the total amount of fixed carbon and depends on vegetation health and water and energy availability. GPP has been monitored worldwide by flux towers and models that are coupled with remotely sensed data, such as by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). However, models have not been evaluated for tropical savanna, which presumably represent a challenge

Reliable projections of future carbon (C) dynamics are essential to resource management decision making under a changing climate. Additional corroborative data may reduce uncertainty in C flux estimates. Here we use a tree-ring based hybrid biometric modelling approach to estimate annual ecosystem production at jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and aspen (Populus tremuloides and Populus balsamifera) plots

Sisal (Agave sisalana) is a climate-resilient crop grown on large-scale farms in semi-arid areas. However, no studies have investigated soil greenhouse gas (GHGs: CO2, N2O and CH4) fluxes from these plantations and how they relate to other land cover types. We examined GHG fluxes (Fs) in a sisal chronosequence at Teita Sisal Estate in southern Kenya. The effects of stand age on Fs were examined using

Grasslands, natural and managed, cover a large part of the Earth’s surface and play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle. Human management strongly affects grassland C budgets through grass cutting and removal, varied grazing intensities, and organic matter additions. Thus managed grassland C cycles are highly heterogeneous and challenging to quantify. In this study, we combine a process-based

Many soil moisture networks monitor only one land cover type, typically grassland, and the availability of in-situ soil moisture data in other land cover types is severely limited. Satellite-based radiometers lack adequate resolution to match the spatial variability in land cover, which often occurs at the sub-kilometer scale. Thus, spatial and temporal dynamics of root zone soil moisture in regions

Stem water content (StWC) of plants is an important parameter for assessing plant response to drought stress in arid and semi-arid areas and for irrigation scheduling. The measurement accuracies of in-situ non-invasive approaches are degraded by plant growth and by diurnal changes in stem diameter associated with water content. Here we develop a frequency-domain (FD) dielectric sensor operating at

The forest floor provides an important interface of soil-atmosphere CO2 exchanges but their controls and contributions to the ecosystem-scale carbon budget are uncertain due to measurement limitations. In this study, we deployed eddy covariance systems below- and above-canopy to measure the spatially integrated net forest floor CO2 exchange (NFFE) and the entire net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) at

Plastic-film mulched drip irrigation (PFMDI), a new crop management technique which combines plastic film mulching (PFM) and drip irrigation (DI), has been widely practiced in arid areas to save water. While this management enhances crop yield and respiration, the consequences for the net ecosystem carbon (C) budget (NECB) of PFMDI fields remain poorly unknown. Here, an investigation of the NECB over

Fire remains one of the main natural disturbance factors in the European boreal zone and understanding climatic forcing on fire activity is important for projecting effects of climate change on ecosystem services in this region. We analyzed records of annually burned areas in 16 administrative regions of the European boreal zone (countries or administrative units within countries) and fire weather

Ongoing climate change and human conversion of forests to other land uses alter regional evapotranspiration dynamics and, consequently, impact associated hydrological systems in Amazonia. We studied the effects of drought and fragmentation on forest evapotranspiration using the surface energy balance-based model METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration) for

With a typical alpine grassland ecosystem, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a highly representative region to observe the effects of climate change on ecosystems. Continued global warming has increased the drought risk of TP, yet the response of vegetation to drought remains unclear. To understand the spatial heterogeneity of the vegetation response to drought and identify the key control factors of vegetation

Intensification of the US dairy industry has driven increased reliance on maize (Zea mays L.) silage as a primary forage source in place of perennial forages such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Using 29 site-years of eddy covariance, plant, and manure measurements, we calculated net ecosystem C balances (NECB) for two silage maize-based forage cropping systems and a soybean-maize grain rotation.

Evapotranspiration (ET) accounts for water movements from land to air and plays a vital role in the terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycles. Reliable estimates of ET for agricultural landscapes can facilitate water resources management and food security analysis. The widely used Priestley-Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) model has the most potential to operationally simulate ET over large

Sitka spruce is the major conifer species in British upland forests and is predominantly managed as even-aged, single-species plantations with rotation lengths of less than 50 years using a “patch clear-felling” system. Evidence on the impact of clear-felling on the carbon, water, and energy balances of plantation forestry is sparse and extreme weather events, such as the 2018 drought that occurred

Recent adverse weather events have questioned the stability of crop production systems. Here, we assessed the vulnerability of eleven major crops in France between 1959 and 2018 as a function of climate, crafting a novel hazard framework that combines exposure and sensitivity to weather-related hazards. Exposure was defined as the frequency of hazardous climate conditions. Sensitivity of crops was

Ecosystem respiration (Re) and methane (CH4) fluxes are two important soil-atmosphere carbon exchange processes that have been well documented at the local scale. However, the spatial patterns and controlling factors of these processes remain unclear in the Tibetan alpine permafrost region at the watershed scale. We conducted a two-year field monitoring study of Re and CH4 fluxes at three altitudinal

The expected large-scale expansion of biofuel production in climate change mitigation scenarios calls for improvements in the representation of bioenergy crops in land surface models. Leaf area index (LAI), canopy height (CH) and root depth (RD) are key parameters that regulate exchanges of heat and moisture between land and atmosphere. This study performs a meta-analysis combining unique data from

Timely and reliable coffee yield forecasts using agroclimatic information are pivotal to the success of agricultural climate risk management throughout the coffee value chain. The capability of statistical models to forecast coffee yields at different lead times during the growing season at the farm scale was assessed. Using data collected during a 10-year period (2008-2017) from 558 farmers across

Tropical peat swamp forest is a unique ecosystem rich in carbon and water, accumulating a huge amount of carbon as peat. However, the huge carbon pool has been threatened by oxidative peat decomposition and fire loss mainly because of deforestation and drainage. Fire causes acute carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through the combustion of biomass and peat. Also, fire should change the CO2 balance of postfire

Together with ensuring a stable yield, improving grape composition and aroma is the main goal of wine grape production management as it determines consumer acceptance and ultimately revenue. Understanding the triggers of the synthesis of aromatic components and finding methods to map their variability in the field can aid management practices during the season and planning selective harvest in views

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is closely linked to photosynthesis, and provides new opportunities for detecting global gross primary production (GPP). Instantaneous satellite SIF products are usually available only for clear-sky condition, which means that there is a temporal inconsistency in the direct link between these and continuous carbon flux records. In this study, we designed

Trees have a large role in improving urban air quality, among other mechanisms, through dry deposition of scalars and aerosols on leaf surfaces. We tested the role of leaf density and canopy structure in modulating the rate of dry deposition. We simulated the interactions between a virtual forest patch and deposition rate of an arbitrary scalar using the Parallelized Large Eddy Simulation Model (PALM)

The rice industry plays an important role in the agricultural economy of Colombia and its success dependents largely on weather conditions. Rice farmers, policymakers and other stakeholders thus need to understand and manage the risks associated with climate variability, including those related to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) – the most important source of variability affecting Colombian climates

Electromagnetic (EM) methods for estimation of water content in porous media (e.g., soil and tree stems) are based on estimates of the media's bulk dielectric permittivity, which is sensitive to water content. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) and frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) are routinely used for rapid, automated and minimally destructive approach for routine measurement of soil water content

European beech plays a prominent role in the adaptation of European forests to and mitigation of climate change. Forest management may increase the mitigation potential of beech forests by accelerating carbon accumulation in tree biomass, but little is known about the interaction between the rate of biomass expansion in beech and its sensitivity to climate variation or its resistance to extreme drought

The land surface models that provide surface fluxes of energy and mass to the atmosphere in weather forecast and climate models typically represent plant canopies as a homogenous single layer of phytomass without vertical structure (commonly referred to as a big leaf). This modeling paradigm harkens back to a 30–40-year-old debate about whether big-leaf models adequately simulate fluxes for vegetated

Based on fifteen-year observations, we explored the interannual variations of five water use efficiency (WUE) indicators (i.e., standard ecosystem WUE (EWUE), plant-canopy WUE (PWUE), inherent WUE (IWUE), underlying WUE (uWUE) and stomatal slope (G1)) over a typical winter wheat-summer maize rotation cropland in the North China Plain. The results showed that none of WUE indicators had a significant

Recent shifts in climatic patterns have influenced the frequency, timing, and severity of heat waves in many wine grape growing regions, which has introduced challenges for viticulturists. Growing the same varieties under these altered climatic conditions often requires mitigation strategies, but quantitative, generalized understanding of the impacts of such strategies can be difficult or time consuming

Crop evapotranspiration (ET) is an essential part of agricultural water consumption, and robust monitoring of remote sensing (RS)-based ET at the field scale improves agricultural water management against water shortages. In this study, we propose a high-resolution optical RS-driven daily ET estimation framework coupling water vaporization and carbon assimilation based on Sentinel-2 satellite data

Climate warming has significantly advanced plant spring phenology in temperate and boreal biomes in the northern hemisphere. However, the response of subtropical forest phenology to climate change remains largely unclear. This study aimed to determine the spatiotemporal patterns of spring photosynthetic phenology in subtropical forests in China over the period 2002-2017 and explore its underlying mechanism

Economic losses due to crop damage caused by frost in Australia are estimated to be many hundreds of millions of dollars. In broadacre cropping, pre-sowing management to alleviate frost risk, and timely post-frost decisions rely on locally relevant information about the extent and severity of frosts. Yet temperature information currently available to grain farmers often has limited local relevance

Higher nitrogen (N) deposition and altered precipitation patterns are two important global change factors contributing to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). In most experiments manipulating global change factors, wet N deposition is simulated by acute N addition once or a few times per year, rather than chronic low N inputs associated to rainfalls as they occur

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution thermal infrared (TIR) cameras can provide the necessary spatial variability for estimating energy balance (EB) components over heterogeneous canopies, such as those of vineyards. An experiment was carried out to evaluate a two-source patch energy balance (TSPEB) model for computing the net radiation (Rn), sensible heat flux (H)

Soil respiration (RS) is one of the most important carbon fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems, and it is considered as a keystone in predicting ecosystem functioning. Changes in climate and land use may alter RS, triggering feedbacks between RS and other ecosystem components. Different factors might simultaneously alter RS, but the consequences of the interactive effects for ecosystems functioning remain

Phylogenetic studies on the leaf unfolding date are expected to improve understanding of phenological change. However, it remains unclear whether the response of leaf unfolding date to temperature is phylogenetically conserved among close relatives across differential and harsh habitats. Meanwhile, the phenological mechanism underlying the role of phylogenetic relationship on plant phenology remains

Land surface phenology (LSP) characterizes the seasonal dynamics of vegetation communities that compose individual satellite pixels and its interannual and spatial variations have been widely associated with climate. However, increasing evidence shows an effect of land cover composition within a pixel on LSP, but it remains unclear the extent of impacts relative to other drivers. To fill this gap,

A machine learning method called the random forest approach was used to explore the relationship between forest productivity and stand and climate factors. Data was sampled from the long-term spacing trails of Chinese fir plantations in southern China. Results showed that the productivity of Chinese fir plantations increased with increasing value of the Gini coefficient and dominant height (Hd), while

Many open questions and unresolved issues surround the topic of bias correction (BC) in climate change impact studies (CCIS). One question relates to the contribution of downscaling of climate change scenarios on the uncertainties in results obtained using impact models for agriculture. In particular, for large area or regional agricultural impact assessments, the question of bias correction is of

We compared Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) machine learning approaches with the widely used Jarvis-type phenomenological model for predicting stomatal conductance (gs) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) using historical measurements collected in the Australian Grains Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (AGFACE) facility. The machine learning-based methods produced greater accuracy than the Jarvis-type

Leaf area index (LAI) is a critical biophysical indicator that describes foliage abundance in ecosystems. An accurate and continuous estimation of LAI is therefore desirable to quantify ecosystem status and function (e.g. carbon and water exchange between the land surface and the atmosphere). However, deriving accurate LAI measurements at regular temporal intervals remains challenging, requiring either