The impact of sub-grid variability of precipitation and canopy water storage is investigated over Central-South Europe by applying a new canopy interception scheme into the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM, Version 3) coupled with the Community Land Model (CLM, Version 3). The study shows that while sub-grid variability exerts great impact on the land surface water budget, the impact on the atmo...

Grapes for wine production are a highly climate sensitive crop and vineyard water budget is a decisive factor in quality formation. In order to conduct risk assessments for climate change effects in viticulture models are needed which can be applied to complete growing regions. We first modified an existing simplified geometric vineyard model of radiation interception and resulting water use to...

We estimated carbon and water flows, canopy conductance and the assimilation/transpiration ratio of fruiting and non-fruiting apple trees grown in the field, from daily gas exchange measurements taken during the summer with a whole-canopy enclosure device. The relationships between photosynthetic and transpirational responses and environmental conditions were also investigated, as well as the r...

Estimating canopy interception of water by plants during rainfall or sprinkler irrigation is a critical step for evaluating water-use efficiency. Most existing experimental studies and mathematic models of canopy interception have paid little attention to the interception losses of water by herbaceous plants. To better understand the canopy interception processes of herbaceous plants and to est...

The factors controlling seasonal rainfall interception loss are investigated by using a double-mass curve analysis, based on direct measurements of high-temporal resolution gross rainfall, throughfall and stemflow from 43 rainfall events that occurred in central Taiwan from April 2008 to April 2009. The canopy water storage capacity for the wet season was estimated to be 1.86 mm, about twice th...

Plant water status is a key factor impacting crop growth and agricultural watermanagement. Cropwater stress may alter canopy temperature, the energy balance, transpiration, photosynthesis, canopy water use efficiency, and crop yield. The objective of this study was to calculate the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) from canopy temperature and energy balance measurements and evaluate the utility of...

A semidistributed, physical-based Urban Forest Effects – Hydrology (UFORE-Hydro) model was created to simulate and study tree effects on urban hydrology and guide management of urban runoff at the catchment scale. The model simulates hydrological processes of precipitation, interception, evaporation, infiltration, and runoff using data inputs of weather, elevation, and land cover along with nin...

Data from Spanish and Italian olive orchards with different cultivars (‘‘Manzanilla’’, ‘‘Frantoio’’, ‘‘Leccino’’, ‘‘Razzola’’ and ‘‘Taggiasca’’) growing in different environments (southern Spain; north, centre and south of Italy) were used to illustrate how models on water use and photosynthetic behaviour of the olive tree can be useful tools for choosing pruning intensity and canopy shape for ...

Estimation of forest carbon storage is a critical challenge for understanding the global carbon cycle because it dominates the dynamics of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system has a unique capability for estimating accurately forest canopy height, which has a direct relationship and can provide better understood to the aboveground carbon storage. To test the ...

Nocturnal fluxes may be a significant factor in the annual water budget of forested ecosystems. Here, we assessed sap flow in two co-occurring evergreen species (Eucalyptus parramattensis and Angophora bakeri) in a temperate woodland for 2 years in order to quantify the magnitude of seasonal nocturnal sap flow (E(n)) under different environmental conditions. The two species showed different diu...