Landatmosphere energy exchange in Arctic tundra and boreal forest: available data and feedbacks to climate

• Main Authors: Werner Eugster, Wayne R. Rouse, Roger A. Pielke, Sr., Joseph P. McFadden, Dennis D. Baldocchi, Timothy G. F. Kittel, F. Stuart, F. Stuart Chapin III, Glen E. Liston, Eugene, Pier Luigi Vidale
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Arctic; albedo; Tundra
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.26.3589; http://sinus.unibe.ch/~eugster/publications/FULL/Eugster.2000.GCB.6.pdf

This paper summarizes and analyses available data on the surface energy balance of Arctic tundra and boreal forest. The complex interactions between ecosystems and their surface energy balance are also examined, including climatically induced shifts in ecosystem type that might amplify or reduce the effects of potential climatic change. High latitudes are characterized by large annual changes in solar input. Albedo decreases strongly from winter, when the surface is snow-covered, to summer, especially in nonforested regions such as Arctic tundra and boreal wetlands. Evapotranspiration (# E ) of high-latitude ecosystems is less than from a freely evaporating surface and decreases late in the season, when soil moisture declines, indicating stomatal control over # E , particularly in evergreen forests. Evergreen conifer forests have a canopy conductance half that of deciduous forests and consequently lower # E and higher sensible heat ux (#H ). There is a broad overlap in energy partitio.