Forest disturbance feedbacks from bedrock to atmosphere using coupled hydro-meteorological simulations over the Rocky Mountain headwaters

The mountain pine beetle (MPB) has dramatically influenced high-elevation pine forests of western North America, with recent infestations causing millions of acres of forest mortality and basal area loss. While ecohydrologic implications of infestation have been studied extensively in recent years, few have explored atmospheric feedbacks of widespread canopy transpiration loss or the potential role of groundwater to amplify or mitigate changes to land energy. This work presents bedrock-to-atmosphere simulations of coupled meteorological and hydrologic states over the Colorado headwaters. Analyses compare configurations with (1) default land surface parameters and (2) disturbance simulations with adjusted transpiration parameters in infested cells. An analysis of variance was conducted to identify regions of significant response to mountain pine beetle. Changes to increased soil moisture and Bowen ratios were found to be statistically significant in MPB-infested areas and in nonlocal valleys, while planetary boundary layer (PBL) response was significant only in high elevations of the headwaters watershed. Temperature-humidity covariance was evaluated using mixing diagrams; the results suggest that increased surface Bowen ratios from MPB could affect entrainment of dry air from the troposphere. The PBL is hotter, drier, and higher under infested forest conditions, which could have implications to atmosphere-vegetation feedbacks and forest drought stress. Finally, land-atmosphere coupling was sensitive to antecedent subsurface moisture. Regions with shallow water tables exhibit greater magnitude response to MPB at the surface and in the PBL, a finding that has repercussions for ecosystem resilience and hydrologic representation in meteorological modeling.

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Related CreativeWork #1 : Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) Data Products at NSIDC

Related Dataset #1 : NCEP FNL Operational Model Global Tropospheric Analyses, continuing from July 1999

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Author Forrester, M. M.
Maxwell, R. M.
Bearup, L.
Gochis, D.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2018-09-16T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T19:20:49.137593
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:22028
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Forrester, M. M., Maxwell, R. M., Bearup, L., Gochis, D.. (2018). Forest disturbance feedbacks from bedrock to atmosphere using coupled hydro-meteorological simulations over the Rocky Mountain headwaters. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7hh6nzn. Accessed 11 February 2025.

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