A distributed-temperature-sensing-based soil temperature profiler

Storage change in heat in the soil is one of the main components of the energy balance and is essential in studying the land-Atmosphere heat exchange. However, its measurement proves to be difficult due to (vertical) soil heterogeneity and sensors easily disturbing the soil. Improvements in the precision and resolution of distributed...

Detecting nighttime inversions in the interior of a Douglas fir canopy

Despite the importance of forests in the water and carbon cycles, accurately measuring their contribution remains challenging, especially at night. During clear-sky nights current models and theories fail, as non-turbulent flows and spatial heterogeneity become more important. One of the standing issues is the ‘decoupling’ of the air masses...

Interception and Redistribution of Precipitation by Parkinsonia aculeata L.: Implications for Palo Verde National Park Wetlands, Costa Rica

Seasonal wetlands in the tropics are important habitats for local and migratory bird species. In the northwestern Pacific of Costa Rica, Palo Verde National Park has one of the most important seasonal wetlands of Central America. The management history of this wetland has shown the impact of invasive plant species such as Parkinsonia aculeata...

Vapor plumes in a tropical wet forest: Spotting the invisible evaporation

Forest evaporation exports a vast amount of water vapor from land ecosystems into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, evaporation during rain events is neglected or considered of minor importance in dense ecosystems. Air convection moves the water vapor upwards leading to the formation of large invisible vapor plumes, while the identification of...

Evaporation partitioning of forest stands: The role of forest structure

Forest evaporation (Ei) is considered the main source of water vapor at a continental scale. Its quantification has been carried out in many ecosystems worldwide, applying the classical partitioning method to differentiate among sources of water vapor. This partitioning differentiates between transpiration (Et), soil evaporation (Es), water...

Decoupling of a Douglas fir canopy: A look into the subcanopy with continuous vertical temperature profiles

Complex ecosystems such as forests make accurately measuring atmospheric energy and matter fluxes difficult. One of the issues that can arise is that parts of the canopy and overlying atmosphere can be turbulently decoupled from each other, meaning that the vertical exchange of energy and matter is reduced or hampered. This complicates flux...

Contribution of understory evaporation in a tropical wet forest during the dry season

Tropical wet forests are complex ecosystems with a large number of plant species. These environments are characterized by a high water availability throughout the whole year and a complex canopy structure. However, how the different sections of the canopy contribute to total evaporation is poorly understood. The aim of this work is to...

Quantification of the Evaporation Rates from Six Types of Wetland Cover in Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica

The hydrology of tropical seasonal wetlands is affected by changes in the land cover. Changes from open water towards a vegetated cover imply an increase in the total evaporation flux, which includes the evaporation from open water bodies and the transpiration from vegetated surfaces. This study quantified the total evaporation flux of six...

What Do Plants Leave after Summer on the Ground?: The Effect of Afforested Plants in Arid Environments

The implementation of afforestation programs in arid environments in northern China had modified the natural vegetation patterns. This increases the evaporation flux; however, the influence of these new covers on the soil water conditions is poorly understood. This work aims to describe the effect of Willow bushes (Salix psammophila C. Wang...

Interception of Rainfall in Successional Tropical Dry Forests in Brazil and Costa Rica

Tropical dry forests (TDF) are endangered ecosystems characterized by a matrix of successional forest patches with structural differences across the Neotropics. Until now, there have been few studies that analyze the partitioning of rainfall by forest interception in TDF. To contribute to the understanding of the TDF impact on the hydrological...

Technical note: Using distributed temperature sensing for Bowen ratio evaporation measurements

Technical note: using Distributed Temperature Sensing for Bowen ratio evaporation measurements

Rapid improvements in the precision and spatial resolution of Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) technology now allows its use in hydrological and atmospheric sciences. Introduced by Euser [Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 2021–2032 (2014)] is the use of DTS for measuring the Bowen ratio (BR-DTS), to estimate the sensible and latent heat flux....