Advancing Cross‐Disciplinary Understanding of Land‐Atmosphere Interactions

Abstract

The evolution of disciplinary silos and increasingly narrow disciplinary boundaries have together resulted in one-sided approaches to the study of land-atmosphere interactions-a field that requires a bidirectional approach to understand the complex feedbacks and interactions that occur. The integration of surface flux and atmospheric boundary layer measurements is therefore essential to advancing our understanding. The Land-Atmosphere 2021 workshop (held virtually, June 10-11, 2021) involved almost 300 participants from around the world and promoted cross-discipline collaboration by way of talks from invited speakers, moderated discussions, breakout sessions, and a virtual poster session. The workshop focused on five main theme areas: "big picture" overview, instrumentation and remote sensing, modeling, water, and aerosols and clouds. In talks and breakout groups, there were frequent calls for more AmeriFlux sites to be instrumented for boundary layer height measurements, and for the development of some "super sites" where profiling instruments would be deployed. There was further agreement on the need for the standardization of various datasets. There was also a consensus that funding agencies need to be willing to support the sorts of large projects (including associated instrumentation) which can drive interdisciplinary work. Early-career scientists, in particular, expressed enthusiasm for working across disciplinary boundaries but noted that there need to be more financial support and training opportunities so they would be better prepared for interdisciplinary work. Investment in these career development opportunities would enable today's cohort of early-career scientists to advance the frontiers of interdisciplinary work over the next couple of decades. Plain Language SummaryThe hypothesis we investigate is that a more collaborative, interdisciplinary approach is needed to advance the science of land-atmosphere interactions. We provide historical perspective by discussing the evolution of the field of land-atmosphere interactions but note that in recent decades, narrow disciplinary boundaries have emerged as a barrier to progress. However, synergies between newly developed observational capacities, and the power of a network-based approach centered around AmeriFlux, have the potential to revolutionize the field over the coming decade. This background provides a summary of the keynote talks presented at the virtual Land-Atmosphere 2021 workshop, in which 300 scientists from around the world participated this past June. The keynote talks offered a range of perspectives on key knowledge gaps and set up discussions on proposed new measurements and opportunities for future cross-disciplinary collaboration. The main conclusions emerging from the final plenary discussion session at this workshop include the need to improve the availability and accessibility of key data sets; the need for federal agencies to provide funding support for large, interdisciplinary projects; and the need for training and other career de...

How Does Land Cover and Its Heterogeneity Length Scales Affect the Formation of Summertime Shallow Cumulus Clouds in Observations From the US Southern Great Plains?

“…Even though no large soil moisture difference are observed from site observations in the analysis domain, the soil moisture effect on cloud formation cannot be excluded (Chen et al, 2020;Findell & Eltahir, 2003;Pielke, 2001;Sakaguchi et al, 2022;Taylor et al, 2011Taylor et al, , 2012. More advanced observations (e.g., soil moisture network, collocated boundary layer and cloud profiling) and high-resolution numerical simulations with improved representations of clouds, atmospheric boundary layer, and land properties are needed to attribute the relative contributions of these intertwining processes (Beamesderfer et al, 2022).…”

Advancing understanding of land–atmosphere interactions by breaking discipline and scale barriers

“…These supersites would be complemented by complete surface measurement networks. 51 Therefore, we advocate combining advanced measurements and instrumental techniques, and high-resolution numerical experiments as the path to advance knowledge of land-atmosphere interactions, as shown in Figures 4 and 6, respectively. With respect to fine-scale land-atmosphere simulations, Figure 8 is a representative example of the level of detail needed to solve the interactions between canopy and the atmosphere.…”

“…Current supersites that are providing these surface and upper‐air observations are: the ATTO site 30 in the Amazonian rainforest (https://www.attoproject.org/), the Ruisdael observatory 90 (https://ruisdael-observatory.nl/), and the Atmospheric Research Radiation site at the Southern Great Plains 91 (https://www.arm.gov/capabilities/observatories/sgp) both in a temperate climates and the SMEAR site in the boreal forests 92 (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/research-stations/hyytiala-forestry-field-station). These supersites would be complemented by complete surface measurement networks 51 …”

“…Scientific communities in the fields of ecology, ecophysiology, and atmospheric science have implemented initiatives to further develop and integrate land surface and atmospheric processes. 28,29,51,52 Har- (2022) addressed this latter aspect when examining and comparing the formulation and performance of widely used leaf photosynthesis models. In the atmospheric science community, 54 Emanuel (2020) stressed the need to maintain a balance between observations, theoretical concepts, and supportive and integrative numerical experiments.…”

“…Scientific communities in the fields of ecology, ecophysiology, and atmospheric science have implemented initiatives to further develop and integrate land surface and atmospheric processes 28,29,51,52 . Harrison et al.…”