Testing different decoupling coefficients with measurements and models of contrasting canopies and soil water conditions

Four different approaches for the calculation of the well established decoupling coefficient Ω are compared using measurements at three experimental sites (Tharandt – spruce forest, Grillenburg and Melpitz – grass) and simulations from the soil-vegetation boundary layer model HIRVAC. These investigations aimed to quantify differences between the calculation routines regarding their ability to describe the vegetation-atmosphere coupling of grass and forest with and without water stress. <br><br> The model HIRVAC used is a vertically highly resolved atmospheric boundary layer model, which includes vegetation. It is coupled with a single-leaf gas exchange model to simulate physiologically based reactions of different vegetation types to changing atmospheric conditions. A multilayer soil water module and a functional parameterisation are the base in order to link the stomata reaction of the gas exchange model to the change of soil water. <br><br> The omega factor was calculated for the basic formulation according to McNaughton and Jarvis (1983) and three modifications. To compare measurements and simulations for the above mentioned spruce and grass sites, the summer period 2007 as well as a dry period in June 2000 were used. Additionally a developing water stress situation for three forest canopies (spruce, pine and beech) and for a grass site was simulated. The results showed large differences between the different omega approaches which depend on the vegetation type and the soil moisture. <br><br> Between the omega values, which were calculated by the used approach, the ranking was always the same not only for the measurements but also for the adapted simulations. The lowest values came from the first modification including doubling factors and summands in all parts of omega equation in relation to the original approach. And the highest values were calculated with the second modification missing one doubling factor in the denominator of the omega equation. <br><br> For example, the averages of omega ranged in the summer period 2007 from 0.11 to 0.19 for the spruce site and moderate soil wetness and from 0.42 to 0.58 for the grass site and higher soil wetness. In the case of the simulated drying out of four different canopies the forest stands showed a similar change of omega from about 0.65 (moderate soil wetness) to 0.1 (low soil wetness). The absolute change of omega for the grass canopy was smaller than for the forest canopies (on average from 0.95 to 0.7). But the differences between the used omega approaches increased. <br><br> Especially the results from the longer period in summer 2007 demonstrate that the various modifications of the decoupling coefficient lead to a change in the long-term quantity of omega. This has, for example, consequences for the description of the coupling of heterogeneous landscapes

New evidence of heterogeneous bank interest rate pass-through in the euro area

We analyse the bank interest rate pass-through in the euro area for the period 1999:1 - 2009:11, relating market interest rates to bank retail rates of comparable maturities. We first estimate single equation error correction models for seven interest rate categories and ten euro area countries and find that the interest rate pass-through displays substantial heterogeneity especially in the short run, but also in the long run. We then apply the pooled mean group estimator (PMGE) advanced by Pesaran et al. (1999), allowing for country-specific interest rate pass-through in the short run, while constraining the long-run pass-through to be homogeneous across countries. We find significant evidence of substantial heterogeneity in the short-run passthrough. Finally, we conduct sub-sample analysis and conclude that the degree of heterogeneity and the overall efficiency of the interest rate pass-through have not improved in the second half of the existence of the European Monetary Union

Regionale Klimaszenarios für die Modellregion Dresden

Dies ist ein Faktenblatt aus dem REGKLAM-Vorhaben zum Thema "Regionale Klmaszenarien für die Modellregion Dresden"

The effect of climatic changed stand structure on temperature and evaporation conditions in the Duebener Heide/Saxony

In den Untersuchungen des Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wird für das 21. Jahrhundert in Mitteleuropa von einem Temperaturanstieg zwischen 2, 5°C und 3,5°C ausgegangen. Auf der lokalen Ebene (Sachsen) wird ebenfalls eine Veränderung des Niederschlagsregimes erwartet. Leicht zunehmende Winter- und abnehmende Sommerniederschläge führen zu einer Reduzierung des verfügbaren Bodenwassers in der Vegetationsperiode. Diese Veränderungen führen zu einer Veränderung des Bestandes- Innenklimas, das wiederum von den Beständen selbst beeinflusst wird. Diese Abschätzung der Bedeutung der Rückkopplung zwischen dem Mikroklima und der Bestandesentwicklung ist dabei eine wesentliche Herausforderung. In dieser Studie wird mit Hilfe modellgestützter Untersuchungen (Vegetations-Atmosphären Grenzschichtmodell HIRVAC) die Variabilität des Bestandes-Innenklimas quantifiziert. Hierbei wurden Modellbestände für den Ist-Zustand und für die IPCC Szenarien B1 und A2 sowie für unterschiedliche Altersklassen als Output des Waldwachstumsmodells BALANCE herangezogen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, wie sich unter diesen Voraussetzungen das Bestandes-Innenklima und dessen Variabilität verändert. So kann unter der Annahme der Erhöhung der mittleren Sommertemperaturen und einer Reduzierung des Niederschlags von einer Verschärfung der Extreme von Luft- und Vegetationsoberflächentemperaturen in den Beständen ausgegangen werden. Durch Optimierung der Bestandesstruktur konnten jedoch maximale Dämpfungsraten der Temperaturen im Kronenbereich zwischen 5,4° C und 6, 2° C in Abhängigkeit der betrachteten Klimaszenarien mit HIRVAC berechnet werden. Damit stellt der Waldumbau möglicherweise ein wichtiges Instrument zur Klimaregulierung innerhalb der Bestände der Zukunft dar.From the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) an expected air temperature increase between 2.5°C and 3.5°C is given for the 21st Century in Central Europe. At the local level (Saxony) also a change in precipitation regimes is expected. Slightly increasing winter and clearly decreasing summer precipitation lead to a reduction of theavailable ground water in the growing season. These changes lead to a change in the canopy climate, which affects the canopy itself. To investigate this feedback between the forest microclimate and canopy structure development is the major objective of this study. For that, simulations with the vegetation-atmosphere boundary layer model HIRVAC are used to quantify the variability of the forest climate. As input for the model investigations changing canopies for the actual state and for the IPCC scenarios B1 and A2 and for different age categories from the forest growth simulator BALANCE were used. The results show very well the interaction between changing external climate conditions, a variable stand structure, and the variability of the forest microclimate. With the assumption the mean summer temperature will increase, and the summer precipitation will reduced in the future, an intensification of the temperature extremes in the canopy can be expected. But otherwise a maximum damping effect of crown temperature of a possible forest between 5.4°C and 6.2°C could be simulated with HIRVAC depending on the considered climate scenario. Therefore, the forest planning is a possible instrument to control the climate conditions of the forests in the future

An approach to combine radar and gauge based rainfall data under consideration of their qualities in low mountain ranges of Saxony

An approach to combine gauge and radar data and additional quality information is presented. The development was focused on the improvement of the diagnostic for temporal (one hour) and spatial (1×1 km<sup>2</sup>) highly resolved precipitation data. The method is embedded in an online tool and was applied to the target area Saxony, Germany. The aim of the tool is to provide accurate spatial rainfall estimates. The results can be used for rainfall run-off modelling, e.g. in a flood management system. <br><br> Quality information allows a better assessment of the input data and the resulting precipitation field. They are stored in corresponding fields and represent the static and dynamic uncertainties of radar and gauge data. Objective combination of various precipitation and quality fields is realised using a cost function. <br><br> The findings of cross validation reveal that the proposed combination method merged the benefits and disadvantages of interpolated gauge and radar data and leads to mean estimates. The sampling point validation implies that the presented method slightly overestimated the areal rain as well as the high rain intensities in case of convective and advective events, while the results of pure interpolation method performed better. In general, the use of presented cost function avoids false rainfall amount in areas of low input data quality and improves the reliability in areas of high data quality. It is obvious that the combined product includes the small-scale variability of radar, which is seen as the important benefit of the presented combination approach. Local improvements of the final rain field are possible due to consideration of gauges that were not used for radar calibration, e.g. in topographic distinct regions

Wasserhaushalt von Wäldern : Editorial

Der heute vielerorts angestrebte naturnahe Waldbau setzt in hohem Maße auf biologische Automation (vgl. Gauer 2009). Grundlegend für eine solche Forstwirtschaft ist unter anderem die räumlich-differenzierte Erfassung und Bewertung wasserhaushaltsbezogener Standortsmerkmale. Denn erst die Kenntnis der Dynamik des pflanzenverfügbaren Bodenwasserangebotes oder auch eines möglichen Überschusses in Form von Stauwasser erlaubt eine standortsgerechte Baumartenwahl als Voraussetzung für eine nachhaltige Waldbewirtschaftung

The Influence of Advection on the Short Term CO 2 -Budget in and Above a Forest Canopy

An experimental micrometeorological set-up was established at the CARBOEURO-FLUX site in Tharandt, Germany, to measure all relevant variables for the calculation of the vertical and horizontal advective fluxes of carbon dioxide. The set-up includes two auxiliary towers to measure horizontal and vertical CO2 and H2O gradients through the canopy, and to make ultrasonic wind measurements in the trunk space. In combination with the long-term flux tower an approximately even-sided prism with a typical side-length of 50 m was established. It is shown that under stable (nighttime) conditions the mean advective fluxes have magnitudes on the same order as the daily eddy covariance (EC) flux, which implies that they play a significant, but not yet fully understood, role in the carbon budget equation. The two advective fluxes are opposite and seem to cancel each other at night (at least for these measurements). During the day, vertical advection tends to zero, while horizontal advection is still present implying a flow of CO2 out of the control volume. From our measurements, a mean daily gain of 2.2 gC m−2 d−1 for the horizontal advection and a mean daily loss of 2.5 gC m−2d−1 for the vertical advection is calculated for a period of 20 days. However the large scatter of the advective fluxes has to be further investigated. It is not clear yet whether the large variability is natural or due to measurement errors and conceptual deficiencies of the experiment. Similar results are found in the few comparable studie

Use of past precipitation data for regionalisation of hourly rainfall in the low mountain ranges of saxony, germany

Within the context of flood forecasting we deal with the improvement of regionalisation methods for the generation of highly resolved (1 h, 1x1km(2)) precipitation fields, which can be used as input for rainfall-runoff models or for verification of weather forecasts. Although radar observations of precipitation are available in many regions, it might be necessary to apply regionalisation methods near real-time for the cases that radar is not available or observations are of low quality. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether past precipitation information can be used to improve regionalisation of rainfall. Within a case study we determined typical precipitation Background-Fields (BGF) for the mountainous and hilly regions of Saxony using hourly and daily rain gauge data. Additionally, calibrated radar data served as past information for the BGF generation. For regionalisation of precipitation we used de-trended kriging and compared the results with another kriging based regionalisation method and with Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). The performance of the methods was assessed by applying cross-validation, by inspection and by evaluation with rainfall-runoff simulations. The regionalisation of rainfall yielded better results in case of advective events than in case of convective events. The performance of the applied regionalisation methods showed no significant disagreement for different precipitation types. Cross-validation results were rather similar in most cases. Subjectively judged, the BGF-method reproduced best the structures of rain cells. Precipitation input derived from radar or kriging resulted in a better matching between observed and simulated flood hydrographs. Simple techniques like IDW also deliver satisfying results in some occasions. Implementation of past radar data into the BGF-method rendered no improvement, because of data shortages. Thus, no method proved to outperform the others generally. The decision, which method is appropriate for an event, should be made objectively using cross-validation, but also subjectively, using the expert knowledge of the forecaster.BMBF/0330700

The influence of advection on the short term CO2 budget in and above a forest canopy

An experimental micrometeorological set-up was established at the CARBOEU-RO-FLUX site in Tharandt, Germany, to measure all relevant variables for the calculation ofthe vertical and horizontal advective fluxes of carbon dioxide. The set-up includes two aux-iliary towers to measure horizontal and vertical CO 2 and H 2 O gradients through the canopy,and to make ultrasonic wind measurements in the trunk space. In combination with the long-term flux tower an approximately even-sided prism with a typical side-length of 50 m wasestablished. It is shown that under stable (nighttime) conditions the mean advective fluxeshave magnitudes on the same order as the daily eddy covariance (EC) flux, which implies thatthey play a significant, but not yet fully understood, role in the carbon budget equation. Thetwo advective fluxes are opposite and seem to cancel each other at night (at least for thesemeasurements). During the day, vertical advection tends to zero, while horizontal advection isstill present implying a flow of CO 2 out of the control volume. From our measurements, amean daily gain of 2.2 gC m-2 d-1for the horizontal advection and a mean daily loss of2.5 gC m-2 d-1 for the vertical advection is calculated for a period of 20 days. However thelarge scatter of the advective fluxes has to be further investigated. It is not clear yet whether thelarge variability is natural or due to measurement errors and conceptual deficiencies of theexperiment. Similar results are found in the few comparable studies

Impact of soil and stand properties on soil water conditions

As an objective water balance classification is lacking for forest sites, efforts were made to develop a model-based site classification system taking into account the effects of relief, soil and stand type on soil water conditions. As a first step, this paper displays the results of a BROOK 90 application evaluating the influence of these three factors on soil water balance with a strong emphasis on drought conditions. Model runs have been carried out for four different soil types, four stand types and a meteorological input covering the range of typical forest sites in the Tharandt Forest as a testing area. Concepts of drought stress quantification help to point out the effects of stress on the sites. In drought years, deciduous trees and soils with limited water retention properties show the effects of drought stress more strongly. The effects of both soil and stand properties were of the same magnitude as the influence of the conventionally considered relief-based meteorological variation at the site.Die forstliche Standortklassifikation ist bundesweit uneinheitlich und bezüglich der Bewertung des Gesamtwasserhaushalts meist subjektiv. Um eine Vereinheitlichung zu erreichen, wird eine modellbasierte, objektive Klassifikation angestrebt, die neben der reliefbasierten meteorologischen Variabilität auch Bodenform und Bestockung einbezieht. In diesem Artikel werden die Ergebnisse vergleichender BROOK 90-Simulationen, die den Effekt unterschiedlicher Böden, Baumarten und Ausrichtungen im Gelände untersuchen, dargestellt und diskutiert. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der Betrachtung von Wasserverfügbarkeit. Es wurden Parametrisierungen für vier verschiedene Bodenformen mit den Bestockungen Buche, Eiche, Fichte und Kiefer verwendet. Die reliefbedingten meteorologischen Standortcharakteristiken richten sich nach den lokalen Gegebenheiten des Testgebiets Tharandter Wald. Für das Konzept der Darstellung von Unterschieden hinsichtlich des Standortswasserhaushaltes wurden hierfür im Modell implementierte Stressindikatoren verwendet. Es zeigt sich, daß in Trockenjahren die Laubbäume höhere Stressindikatoren erreichen. Gleichfalls treten bei Böden mit geringerer Wasserretention erwartungsgemäß mehr Stress-tage auf. Bestockung und Bodeneigenschaften haben einen Einfluß auf Wasserknappheit in der Größenordnung wie die zur forstlichen Standortklassifikation verwendeten morphologischen Geländeeigenschaften