Characterization of shrubland-atmosphere interactions through use of eddy covariance method distributed footprint sampling, and imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles

Authors: ANDERSON, CODY - Arizona State University; VIVONI, ENRIQUE - Arizona State University; PIERINI, NICOLE - Arizona State University; ROBLES-MORUA, AGUSTIN - Arizona State University; Rango, Albert; LALIBERTE, ANDERA - Consultant; SARIPALLI, SRIKANTH - Arizona State University

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/28/2012
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Ecohydrological dynamics can be evaluated from field observations of land-atmosphere states and fluxes, including water, carbon, and energy exchanges measured through the eddy covariance method. In heterogeneous landscapes, the representativeness of these measurements is not well understood due to the variable nature of the sampling footprint and the mixture of underlying herbaceous, shrub, and soil patches. In this study, we integrate new field techniques to understand how ecosystem surface states are related to turbulent fluxes in two different semiarid shrubland settings in the Jornada (New Mexico) and Santa Rita (Arizona) Experimental Ranges. The two sites are characteristic of Chihuahuan (NM) and Sonoran (AZ) Desert mixed-shrub communities resulting from woody plant encroachment into grassland areas. In each study site, we deployed continuous soil moisture and soil temperature profile observations at twenty sites around an eddy covariance tower after local footprint estimation revealed the optimal sensor network design. We then characterized the tower footprint through terrain and vegetation analyses derived at high resolution (