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Trends and controls on water-use efficiency of an old-growth coniferous forest in the Pacific Northwest755.71 kB
Published (Version of Record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Letter/Communication
Trends and controls on water-use efficiency of an old-growth coniferous forest in the Pacific Northwest
Environmental Research Letters, Vol.14(7), pp.074029/1-074029/12
16/07/2019
Abstract
At the ecosystem scale, water-use efficiency (WUE) is defined broadly as the ratio of carbon assimilated to water evaporated by an ecosystem. WUE is an important aspect of carbon and water cycling and has been used to assess forest ecosystem responses to climate change and rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This study investigates the influence of meteorological and radiation variables on forest WUE by analyzing an 18 year (1998-2015) half-hourly time series of carbon and water fluxes measured with the eddy covariance technique in an old-growth conifer forest in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Three different metrics of WUE exhibit an overall increase over the period 1998-2007 mainly due to an increase in gross primary productivity (GPP) and a decrease in evapotranspiration (ET). However, the WUE metrics did not exhibit an increase across the period from 2008 to 2015 due to a greater reduction in GPP relative to ET. The strength of associations among particular meteorological variables and WUE varied with the scale of temporal aggregation used. In general, vapor pressure deficit and air temperature appear to control WUE at half-hourly and daily time scales, whereas atmospheric CO2 concentration was identified as the most important factor controlling monthly WUE. Carbon and water fluxes and the consequent WUE showed a weak correlation to the Standard Precipitation Index, while carbon fluxes were strongly dependent on the combined effect of multiple climate factors. The inferred patterns and controls on forest WUE highlighted have implications for improved understanding and prediction of possible adaptive adjustments of forest physiology in response to climate change and rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Details
- Title
- Trends and controls on water-use efficiency of an old-growth coniferous forest in the Pacific Northwest
- Authors/Creators
- Yueyang Jiang - Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Corvallis, OR, United States of AmericaChristopher J. Still - Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Corvallis, OR, United States of AmericaBharat Rastogi - Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Corvallis, OR, United States of AmericaGerald PageSonia Wharton - Atmospheric, Earth and Energy Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, United States of AmericaFrederick C. Meinzer - USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OR, United States of AmericaSteven Voelker - Utah State University Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Logan, UT, United States of AmericaJohn B Kim - USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OR, United States of America
- Publication Details
- Environmental Research Letters, Vol.14(7), pp.074029/1-074029/12
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- 14-JV-11261952-100 / OSU-USDA joint-venture agreement
- Identifiers
- 991005620069807891
- Copyright
- © 2019 The Author(s)
- Murdoch Affiliation
- College of Environmental and Life Sciences; School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Letter/Communication
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- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.40 Forestry
- 3.40.55 Forest Dynamics
- Web Of Science research areas
- Environmental Sciences
- Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
- ESI research areas
- Environment/Ecology