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Available Energy Partitioning During Drought at Two Norway Spruce Forests and a European Beech Forest in Central Europe
Author(s) -
McGloin Ryan,
Šigut Ladislav,
Fischer Milan,
Foltýnová Lenka,
Chawla Shilpi,
Trnka Miroslav,
Pavelka Marian,
Marek Michal V.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2018jd029490
Subject(s) - beech , picea abies , environmental science , fagus sylvatica , precipitation , eddy covariance , growing season , sensible heat , canopy , forest ecology , ecosystem , atmospheric sciences , ecology , forestry , geography , biology , geology , meteorology
Partitioning of the available energy at the Earth's surface into the latent heat ( LE ) and sensible heat ( H ) fluxes has important climatological, hydrological, and physiological implications. With the prediction of more frequent droughts in central Europe in the near future, there is a particular need to understand variability in available energy partitioning under drought stress conditions at forest ecosystems that are common in the region, such as Norway spruce and European beech. Using eddy covariance measurements from two Norway spruce sites with contrasting wet and dry climates and one European beech site in the Czech Republic, it was found that the proportion of energy partitioned into H was greater at the spruce sites than at the beech site in all conditions during the growing season. The difference between the mean midday (09:00–15:00) β values for low stress conditions and drought stress conditions was much smaller at the European beech site ( β = 1.04 vs. 1.11) than at the wet ( β = 1.52 vs. 2.50) and dry Norway spruce ( β = 1.80 vs. 2.70) sites, indicating that β was not as sensitive to drought stress at the European beech site as at the Norway spruce sites. The high β values and enhancement of drought conditions through positive feedback processes at Norway spruce stands mean that the potential substitution of Norway spruce monocultures with mixed broadleaf‐coniferous stands in central Europe will likely lessen the severity of droughts and heat waves in the region.