College of Agriculture
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As the foundation of the land grant mission at Montana State University, the College of Agriculture and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station provide instruction in traditional and innovative degree programs and conduct research on old and new challenges for Montana’s agricultural community. This integration creates opportunities for students and faculty to excel through hands-on learning, to serve through campus and community engagement, to explore unique solutions to distinct and interesting questions and to connect Montanans with the global community through research discoveries and outreach.
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Item Linking flux network measurements to continental scale simulations: Ecosystem gas exchange capacity along a European transect under non-water-stressed conditions(2007-01) Owen, Katherine E.; Tenhunen, John; Reichstein, Markus; Wang, Quan; Falge, Eva; Geyer, Ralf; Xiao, Xiangming; Stoy, Paul C.; Ammann, Christof; Arain, M. Altaf; Aubinet, Marc; Aurela, Mika; Bernhofer, Christian; Chojnicki, Bogdan H.; Granier, Andre; Gruenwald, Thomas; Hadley, Julian; Heinesch, Bernard; Hollinger, David Y.; Knohl, Alexander; Kutsch, Werner L.; Lohila, Annalea; Meyers, Tilden P.; Moors, Eddy J.; Moureaux, Christine; Pilegaard, Kim; Saigusa, Nobuko; Verma, Shashi B.; Vesala, Timo; Vogel, ChrisThis paper examines long‐term eddy covariance data from 18 European and 17 North American and Asian forest, wetland, tundra, grassland, and cropland sites under non‐water‐stressed conditions with an empirical rectangular hyperbolic light response model and a single layer two light‐class carboxylase‐based model. Relationships according to ecosystem functional type are demonstrated between empirical and physiological parameters, suggesting linkages between easily estimated parameters and those with greater potential for process interpretation. Relatively sparse documentation of leaf area index dynamics at flux tower sites is found to be a major difficulty in model inversion and flux interpretation. Therefore, a simplification of the physiological model is carried out for a subset of European network sites with extensive ancillary data. The results from these selected sites are used to derive a new parameter and means for comparing empirical and physiologically based methods across all sites, regardless of ancillary data. The results from the European analysis are then compared with results from the other Northern Hemisphere sites and similar relationships for the simplified process‐based parameter were found to hold for European, North American, and Asian temperate and boreal climate zones. This parameter is useful for bridging between flux network observations and continental scale spatial simulations of vegetation/atmosphere carbon dioxide exchange.Item Deriving a light use efficiency model from eddy covariance flux data for predicting daily gross primary production across biomes(2007-04) Yuan, Wenping; Liu, Shuguang; Zhou, Guangsheng; Zhou, Guoyi; Tieszen, Larry L.; Baldocchi, Dennis D.; Bernhofer, Christian; Gholz, Henry; Goldstein, Allen H.; Goulden, Michael L.; Hollinger, David Y.; Hu, Yueming; Law, Beverly E.; Stoy, Paul C.; Vesala, Timo; Wofsy, Steven C.The quantitative simulation of gross primary production (GPP) at various spatial and temporal scales has been a major challenge in quantifying the global carbon cycle. We developed a light use efficiency (LUE) daily GPP model from eddy covariance (EC) measurements. The model, called EC-LUE, is driven by only four variables: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), air temperature, and the Bowen ratio of sensible to latent heat flux (used to calculate moisture stress). The EC-LUE model relies on two assumptions: First, that the fraction of absorbed PAR (fPAR) is a linear function of NDVI; Second, that the realized light use efficiency, calculated from a biome-independent invariant potential LUE, is controlled by air temperature or soil moisture, whichever is most limiting. The EC-LUE model was calibrated and validated using 24,349 daily GPP estimates derived from 28 eddy covariance flux towers from the AmeriFlux and EuroFlux networks, covering a variety of forests, grasslands and savannas. The model explained 85% and 77% of the observed variations of daily GPP for all the calibration and validation sites, respectively. A comparison with GPP calculated from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) indicated that the EC-LUE model predicted GPP that better matched tower data across these sites. The realized LUE was predominantly controlled by moisture conditions throughout the growing season, and controlled by temperature only at the beginning and end of the growing season. The EC-LUE model is an alternative approach that makes it possible to map daily GPP over large areas because (1) the potential LUE is invariant across various land cover types and (2) all driving forces of the model can be derived from remote sensing data or existing climate observation networks.Item Upscaling as ecological information transfer: A simple framework with application to arctic ecosystem carbon exchange(2009-06) Stoy, Paul C.; Williams, Mathew; Prieto-Blanco, Ana; Huntley, Brian; Baxter, Robert; Lewis, PhilipTransferring ecological information across scale often involves spatial aggregation, which alters information content and may bias estimates if the scaling process is nonlinear. Here, a potential solution, the preservation of the information content of fine-scale measurements, is highlighted using modeled net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of an Arctic tundra landscape as an example. The variance of aggregated normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), measured from an airborne platform, decreased linearly with log(scale), resulting in a linear relationship between log(scale) and the scale-wise modeled NEE estimate. Preserving three units of information, the mean, variance and skewness of fine-scale NDVI observations, resulted in upscaled NEE estimates that deviated less than 4% from the fine-scale estimate. Preserving only the mean and variance resulted in nearly 23% NEE bias, and preserving only the mean resulted in larger error and a change in sign from CO2 sink to source. Compressing NDVI maps by 70–75% using wavelet thresholding with the Haar and Coiflet basis functions resulted in 13% NEE bias across the study domain. Applying unique scale-dependent transfer functions between NDVI and leaf area index (LAI) decreased, but did not remove, bias in modeled flux in a smaller expanse using handheld NDVI observations. Quantifying the parameters of statistical distributions to preserve ecological information reduces bias when upscaling and makes possible spatial data assimilation to further reduce errors in estimates of ecological processes across scale.Item Artificial drainage and associated carbon fluxes (CO2/CH4) in tundra ecosystems(2009-11) Merbold, L.; Kutsch, Werner L.; Kolle, O.; Zimov, S. A.; Corradi, C.; Stoy, Paul C.; Schulze, E.-D.Ecosystem flux measurements using the eddy covariance (EC) technique were undertaken in 4 subsequent years during summer for a total of 562 days in an arctic wet tundra ecosystem, located near Cherskii, Far‐Eastern Federal District, Russia. Methane (CH4) emissions were measured using permanent chambers. The experimental field is characterized by late thawing of permafrost soils in June and periodic spring floods. A stagnant water table below the grass canopy is fed by melting of the active layer of permafrost and by flood water. Following 3 years of EC measurements, the site was drained by building a 3 m wide drainage channel surrounding the EC tower to examine possible future effects of global change on the tundra tussock ecosystem. Cumulative summertime net carbon fluxes before experimental alteration were estimated to be about +15 g C m−2 (i.e. an ecosystem C loss) and +8 g C m−2 after draining the study site. When taking CH4 as another important greenhouse gas into account and considering the global warming potential (GWP) of CH4 vs. CO2, the ecosystem had a positive GWP during all summers. However CH4 emissions after drainage decreased significantly and therefore the carbon related greenhouse gas flux was much smaller than beforehand (475 ± 253 g C‐CO2‐e m−2 before drainage in 2003 vs. 23 ± 26 g C‐CO2‐e m−2 after drainage in 2005).Item Nocturnal Evapotranspiration in Eddy-Covariance Records from Three Co-Located Ecosystems in the Southeastern U.S.: Implications for Annual Fluxes(2009-09) Novick, Kimberly A.; Oren, Ram; Stoy, Paul C.; Siqueira, Mario B. S.; Katul, Gabriel G.Nocturnal evapotranspiration (ETN) is often assumed to be negligible in terrestrial ecosystems, reflecting the common assumption that plant stomata close at night to prevent water loss from transpiration. However, recent evidence across a wide range of species and climate conditions suggests that significant transpiration occurs at night, frustrating efforts to estimate total annual evapotranspiration (ET) from conventional methods such as the eddy-covariance technique. Here, the magnitude and variability of ETN is explored in multiple years of eddy-covariance measurements from three adjacent ecosystems in the Southeastern U.S.: an old grass field, a planted pine forest, and a late-successional hardwood forest. After removing unreliable data points collected during periods of insufficient turbulence, observed ETN averaged 8–9% of mean daytime evapotranspiration (ETD). ETN was driven primarily by wind speed and vapor pressure deficit and, in the two forested ecosystems, a qualitative analysis suggests a significant contribution from nocturnal transpiration. To gapfill missing data, we investigated several methodologies, including process-based multiple non-linear regression, relationships between daytime and nighttime ET fluxes, marginal distribution sampling, and multiple imputation. The utility of the gapfilling procedures was assessed by comparing simulated fluxes to reliably measured fluxes using randomly generated gaps in the data records, and by examining annual sums of ET from the different gapfilling techniques. The choice of gapfilling methodology had a significant impact on estimates of annual ecosystem water use and, in the most extreme cases, altered the annual estimate of ET by over 100 mm year−1, or ca. 15%. While no single gapfiling methodology appeared superior for treating data from all three sites, marginal distribution sampling generally performed well, producing flux estimates with a site average bias error of <10%, and a mean absolute error close to the random measurement error of the dataset (12.2 and 9.8 W m−2, respectively).Item The Effects of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Nitrogen Amendments on Subsurface CO2 Production and Concentration Dynamics in a Maturing Pine Forest(2009-05) Daly, Edoardo; Palmroth, Sari; Stoy, Paul C.; Siqueira, Mario B. S.; Oishi, A. Christopher; Juang, Jehn-Yih; Oren, Ram; Porporato, Amilcare; Katul, Gabriel G.Profiles of subsurface soil CO2 concentration, soil temperature, and soil moisture, and throughfall were measured continuously during the years 2005 and 2006 in 16 locations at the free air CO2 enrichment facility situated within a temperate loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stand. Sampling at these locations followed a 4 by 4 replicated experimental design comprised of two atmospheric CO2 concentration levels (ambient [CO2]a, ambient + 200 ppmv, [CO2]e) and two soil nitrogen (N) deposition levels (ambient, ambient + fertilization at 11.2 gN m−2 year−1). The combination of these measurements permitted indirect estimation of below ground CO2 production and flux profiles in the mineral soil. Adjacent to the soil CO2 profiles, direct (chamber-based) measurements of CO2 fluxes from the soil–litter complex were simultaneously conducted using the automated carbon efflux system. Based on the measured soil CO2 profiles, neither [CO2]e nor N fertilization had a statistically significant effect on seasonal soil CO2, CO2 production, and effluxes from the mineral soil over the study period. Soil moisture and temperature had different effects on CO2 concentration depending on the depth. Variations in CO2 were mostly explained by soil temperature at deeper soil layers, while water content was an important driver at the surface (within the first 10 cm), where CO2 pulses were induced by rainfall events. The soil effluxes were equal to the CO2 production for most of the time, suggesting that the site reached near steady-state conditions. The fluxes estimated from the CO2 profiles were highly correlated to the direct measurements when the soil was neither very dry nor very wet. This suggests that a better parameterization of the soil CO2 diffusivity is required for these soil moisture extremes.Item The relationship between reference canopy conductance and simplified hydraulic architecture(2009-06) Novick, Kimberly A.; Oren, Ram; Stoy, Paul C.; Juang, Jehn-Yih; Siqueira, Mario B. S.; Katul, Gabriel G.Terrestrial ecosystems are dominated by vascular plants that form a mosaic of hydraulic conduits to water movement from the soil to the atmosphere. Together with canopy leaf area, canopy stomatal conductance regulates plant water use and thereby photosynthesis and growth. Although stomatal conductance is coordinated with plant hydraulic conductance, governing relationships across species has not yet been formulated at a practical level that can be employed in large-scale models. Here, combinations of published conductance measurements obtained with several methodologies across boreal to tropical climates were used to explore relationships between canopy conductance rates and hydraulic constraints. A parsimonious hydraulic model requiring sapwood-to-leaf area ratio and canopy height generated acceptable agreement with measurements across a range of biomes (r2 = 0.75) . The results suggest that, at long time scales, the functional convergence among ecosystems in the relationship between water-use and hydraulic architecture eclipses inter-specific variation in physiology and anatomy of the transport system. Prognostic applicability of this model requires independent knowledge of sapwood-to-leaf area. In this study, we did not find a strong relationship between sapwood-to-leaf area and physical or climatic variables that are readily determinable at coarse scales, though the results suggest that climate may have a mediating influence on the relationship between sapwood-to-leaf area and height. Within temperate forests, canopy height alone explained a large amount of the variance in reference canopy conductance (r2 = 0.68) and this relationship may be more immediately applicable in the terrestrial ecosystem models.Item Using information theory to determine optimum pixel size and shape for ecological studies: Aggregating land surface characteristics in arctic ecosystems(2009-03) Stoy, Paul C.; Williams, Mathew; Bell, Robert A.; Spadavecchia, Luke; Prieto-Blanco, Ana; Evans, J. G.; van Wijk, Mark T.Quantifying vegetation structure and function is critical for modeling ecological processes, and an emerging challenge is to apply models at multiple spatial scales. Land surface heterogeneity is commonly characterized using rectangular pixels, whose length scale reflects that of remote sensing measurements or ecological models rather than the spatial scales at which vegetation structure and function varies. We investigated the ‘optimum’ pixel size and shape for averaging leaf area index (LAI) measurements in relatively large (85 m2 estimates on a 600 × 600-m2 grid) and small (0.04 m2 measurements on a 40 × 40-m2 grid) patches of sub-Arctic tundra near Abisko, Sweden. We define the optimum spatial averaging operator as that which preserves the information content (IC) of measured LAI, as quantified by the normalized Shannon entropy (E S,n) and Kullback–Leibler divergence (D KL), with the minimum number of pixels. Based on our criterion, networks of Voronoi polygons created from triangulated irregular networks conditioned on hydrologic and topographic indices are often superior to rectangular shapes for averaging LAI at some, frequently larger, spatial scales. In order to demonstrate the importance of information preservation when upscaling, we apply a simple, validated ecosystem carbon flux model at the landscape level before and after spatial averaging of land surface characteristics. Aggregation errors are minimal due to the approximately linear relationship between flux and LAI, but large errors of approximately 45% accrue if the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is averaged without preserving IC before conversion to LAI due to the nonlinear NDVI-LAI transfer function.Item Assessing Self-Organization of Plant communities—A Thermodynamic Approach(2009-03) Lin, Hua; Cao, Min; Stoy, Paul C.; Zhang, YipingThermodynamics is a powerful tool for the study of system development and has the potential to be applied to studies of ecological complexity. Here, we develop a set of thermodynamic indicators including energy capture and energy dissipation to quantify plant community self-organization. The study ecosystems included a tropical seasonal rainforest, an artificial tropical rainforest, a rubber plantation, and two Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King & H. Robinson communities aged 13 years and 1 year. The communities represent a complexity transect from primary vegetation, to transitional community, economic plantation, and fallows and are typical for Xishuangbanna, southwestern China. The indicators of ecosystem self-organization are sensitive to plant community type and seasonality, and demonstrate that the tropical seasonal rainforest is highly self-organized and plays an important role in local environmental stability via the land surface thermal regulation. The rubber plantation is at a very low level of self-organization as quantified by the thermodynamic indicators, especially during the dry season. The expansion of the area of rubber plantation and shrinkage of tropical seasonal rainforest would likely induce local surface warming and a larger daily temperature range.Item Fine-Root Respiration in a Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L.) Forest Exposed to Elevated CO2 and N Fertilization(2008-10) Drake, John E.; Stoy, Paul C.; Jackson, Robert B.; DeLucia, Evan H.Forest ecosystems release large amounts of carbon to the atmosphere from fine‐root respiration (Rr), but the control of this flux and its temperature sensitivity (Q10) are poorly understood. We attempted to: (1) identify the factors limiting this flux using additions of glucose and an electron transport uncoupler (carbonyl cyanide m‐chlorophenylhydrazone); and (2) improve yearly estimates of Rr by directly measuring its Q10in situ using temperature‐controlled cuvettes buried around intact, attached roots. The proximal limits of Rr of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) trees exposed to free‐air CO2 enrichment (FACE) and N fertilization were seasonally variable; enzyme capacity limited Rr in the winter, and a combination of substrate supply and adenylate availability limited Rr in summer months. The limiting factors of Rr were not affected by elevated CO2 or N fertilization. Elevated CO2 increased annual stand‐level Rr by 34% whereas the combination of elevated CO2 and N fertilization reduced Rr by 40%. Measurements of in situ Rr with high temporal resolution detected diel patterns that were correlated with canopy photosynthesis with a lag of 1 d or less as measured by eddy covariance, indicating a dynamic link between canopy photosynthesis and root respiration. These results suggest that Rr is coupled to daily canopy photosynthesis and increases with carbon allocation below ground.