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Editors' Choice

2 December 2021

November 2021 AgForMet Editors’ choice

November 2021 AgForMet Editors’ pick

Environment-sensitivity functions for gross primary productivity in light use efficiency models
Shanning Bao et al.
Volume 3312, 15 January 2021, 108708

Comments by Chief Editor Tim Griffis:

“Understanding the response of ecosystem-scale gross primary productivity (GPP) to environmental drivers is essential for diagnosing and predicting changes in ecosystem carbon balance. This paper provides a comprehensive roadmap for the analysis of GPP and light use efficiency response to environmental drivers with data obtained from 196 FLUXNET sites representing diverse vegetation types and climate. As shown here, the effects of CO2 fertilization and diffuse light are key drivers at the global scale, while local analyses reveal that GPP can show non-linear and lagged responses to temperature, vapor pressure deficit, and soil water content.”

4 July 2021

June 2021 Editors' Choice - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Integrating continuous atmospheric boundary layer and tower-based flux measurements to advance understanding of land-atmosphere interactions

Manuel Helbig et al.

Volume 307, 15 September 2021, 108509

Comments by Chief Editor Georg Wohlfahrt:

“The atmospheric boundary layer and the underlying land surface are connected by a number of feedbacks, to date co-located measurements of the surface exchange of mass, energy and momentum and observations of the atmospheric boundary layer are however scarce. In their review Manuel Helbig and co-authors demonstrate how atmospheric boundary layer observations can (i) enhance the scientific value of surface flux measurements, (ii) allow tackling new emerging research topics, and (iii) create exciting opportunities for novel collaborations in the wider Earth science community.”

7 April 2021

March 2021 Editors' Choice - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Combining flux variance similarity partitioning with artificial neural networks to gap-fill measurements of net ecosystem production of a Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir stand

Sung-Ching Lee, Andreas Christen, T. Andrew Black, Rachhpal S. Jassal, Ferdinand Briegel, Zoran Nesic
Volume 303, 15 June 2021, 108382

Comments by Chief Editor Georg Wohlfahrt:

“Disentangling the two component fluxes, gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration, underlying the measured net ecosystem CO2 exchange continues to represent a challenge in the eddy covariance flux tower community. Here Lee and co-authors combine two established approaches, the flux variance similarity partitioning and an artificial neural network approach, in an innovative fashion to show that while the annual net CO2 exchange estimates were similar compared to established approaches, large differences emerged for the two component fluxes, suggesting the potential for systematic bias.”

 

17 March 2021

February 2021 Editors' Choice - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Strong regional influence of climatic forcing datasets on global crop model ensembles

Alex C. Ruane et al.

Volume 300, April 2021, 108313

Comments by Chief Editor Tim Griffis:

“Crop models are essential tools for diagnosing and forecasting changes in regional crop productivity, but these models can be severely limited by the quality of climate forcing datasets. This paper systematically evaluates how climate forcing data can influence simulated historical crop productivity for major crop types of key regions. Indeed, differences among climate forcing datasets can be substantial for some parts of the world where observations are limited. As shown here, after appropriate bias corrections are applied to climate forcing datasets, the application of multi-model ensembles can provide a powerful way to diagnose changes in spatiotemporal patterns of crop production.”

7 February 2021

January 2021 Editors' Choice - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Examining relationships between entrainment-driven scalar dissimilarity and surface energy balance underclosure in a semiarid valley

Babic N., Stiperski I., Marinovic I., Vecenaj Z., De Wekker S.

Volumes 298-299, March 2021, 108272

Comments by Editor Nelson Luis Dias:

“The paper by Babic et al. undertakes a thorough investigation of the two main mechanisms usually accepted for the lack of closure of the energy budget at the surface: large scale, low-frequency motions related to entrainment at the top of the atmospheric boundary-layer, and horizontal advection, as often reported in the literature. The authors analyzed turbulence data measured over complex terrain in Owens Valley, California, and combined in a novel approach several statistical techniques, including multiresolution flux decomposition, quadrant analysis, and per quadrant-contribution to the total temperature-humidity covariance. In this way, they were able to detect a progression during daytime in the main cause for the lack of energy closure, from low-frequency motions in the early morning to horizontal advection effects in the afternoon, with the latter being the overall dominant effect. The research sheds new light on the energy budget over complex terrain and will be important in the design of future field experiments and for the progress of parameterization of entrainment effects.”

Process-based analysis of Thinopyrum intermedium phenological development highlights the importance of dual induction for reproductive growth and agronomic performance

Duchene O., Dumont B., Cattani D.J., Fagnant L., Schlautman B., DeHaan L.R., Barriball S., Jungers J.M., Picasso V.D., David C., Celette F.

Volumes 301-303, May 2021, 108341

Comments by Editor Johannes Laubach:

“This paper is a beautiful example of applied research into climatic effects on crops. It covers a rather unusual topic in that it deals with intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium), a new perennial grain crop, and seeks to tease out optimum climatic requirements for its flowering and grain production. The authors use experiments at various field sites, in four countries, combined with phenological modelling, to arrive at results for optimal vernalizing temperature and optimal daylength. They also conclude that vernalization, followed by dynamics coupling growing-degree-day and daylength effects in spring, drives the wheatgrass sward's functional changes. This may potentially result in variable agronomic performances depending on growth environment and cropping system management, for which accurate models need to be developed. The paper thus contains novel information and has the potential to be highly useful for agronomists, plant breeders and crop modellers.”

6 December 2020

November 2020 Editors' Choice - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Outstanding papers selected by AGMET Editors

Carbon dioxide balance of an oil palm plantation established on tropical peat
Frankie Kiew; Ryuichi Hirata; Takashi Hirano; Guan Xhuan Wong; Edward B Aries; Kevin Kemudang; Joseph Wenceslaus; Kim San Lo; Lulie Melling
Volume 295, 15 December 2020, 108189

Comments by editor Johannes Laubach:
“This paper reports, for the first time, the CO2 balance of a tropical oil palm plantation on peat soil. The results demonstrate that this type of land-use is associated with strong consistent net CO2 emissions and thus contributes to global warming, and that it does so more strongly than the kind of peat swamp forest that had been replaced by the plantation. This study is also a nice demonstration of the strengths of the eddy-covariance method, providing 4 years of data with high temporal coverage and resolution, which in turn allowed the authors to identify which processes contributed most strongly to the net CO2 emissions.”

Partitioning of net ecosystem exchange into photosynthesis and respiration using continuous stable isotope measurements in a Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir forest ecosystem
Sung-Ching Lee; Andreas Christen; T. Andrew Black; Rachhpal S.Jassal; Rick Ketler; Zoran Nesic
Volumes 292-293, 15 October 2020, 108109

Comments by editor Tim J. Griffis:
“This paper uses optical stable carbon isotope (13CO2/12CO2) measurements and state-of-the-art theory to partition net ecosystem CO2 exchange into daytime ecosystem respiration and gross primary production for a Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir forest. The isotope partitioning results indicated important differences from traditional approaches based on light-response analyses and nighttime temperature functions. Indeed, the isotope results imply that daytime light inhibition of respiration (i.e. the Kok effect) may represent a key bias in our traditional partitioning approaches. Such biases have important implications for understanding ecosystem function and model evaluations based on eddy covariance data.”