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- Title
Carbon uptake and water use in woodlands and forests in southern Australia during an extreme heat wave event in the 'Angry Summer' of 2012/2013.
- Authors
van Gorsel, Eva; Wolf, Sebastian; Isaac, Peter; Cleverly, James; Haverd, Vanessa; Ewenz, Cäcilia; Arndt, Stefan; Beringer, Jason; de Dios, Víctor Resco; Evans, Bradley J.; Griebel, Anne; Hutley, Lindsay B.; Keenan, Trevor; Kljun, Natascha; Macfarlane, Craig; Meyer, Wayne S.; McHugh, Ian; Pendall, Elise; Prober, Suzanne; Silberstein, Richard
- Abstract
As a result of climate change warmer temperatures are projected through the 21st century and are already increasing above modelled predictions. Apart from increases in the mean, warm/hot temperature extremes are expected to become more prevalent in the future, along with an increase in the frequency of droughts. It is crucial to better understand the response of terrestrial ecosystems to such temperature extremes for predicting land-surface feedbacks in a changing climate. During the 2012/2013 summer, Australia experienced a record-breaking heat wave with an exceptional spatial extent that lasted for several weeks. We synthesized eddy-covariance measurements from seven woodland and forest sites across climate zones in southern Australia, which we combined with model simulations from the CABLE land surface model to investigate the effect of this summer heat wave on the carbon and water exchange of terrestrial ecosystems. We found that the water-limited woodlands and the energy-limited forest ecosystem responded differently to the heat wave. During the most intense part of the heat wave, the woodlands experienced decreased latent heat flux, an increased Bowen ratio and a reduced carbon uptake while the forest ecosystem had increased latent heat flux, reduced Bowen ratio and increased carbon uptake. Ecosystem respiration was increased at all sites resulting in reduced net ecosystem productivity in the woodlands and constant net ecosystem productivity in the forest. Importantly all ecosystems remained carbon sinks during the event. Precipitation after the most intense first part of the heat wave and slightly cooler temperatures led to a decrease of the Bowen ratio and hence increased evaporative cooling. Carbon uptake in the woodlands also recovered quickly but respiration remained high. While woodlands and forest proved relatively resistant to this short-term heat extreme these carbon sinks may not sustainable in a future with an increased number, intensity and duration of heat waves.
- Subjects
WATER use; CARBON &; the environment; FOREST ecology; CLIMATE change; SUSTAINABLE development
- Publication
Biogeosciences Discussions, 2016, p1
- ISSN
1810-6277
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/bg-2016-183