Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

On The Spatial Heterogeneity Of Net Ecosystem Productivity In Complex Landscapes, Ryan E. Emanuel, Diego Andrés Riveros-Iregui, Brian L. Mcglynn, Howard E. Epstein

Papers in Natural Resources

Micrometeorological flux towers provide spatially integrated estimates of net ecosystem production (NEP) of carbon over areas ranging from several hectares to several square kilometers, but they do so at the expense of spatially explicit information within the footprint of the tower. This finer-scale information is crucial for understanding how physical and biological factors interact and give rise to towermeasured fluxes in complex landscapes. We present a simple approach for quantifying and evaluating the spatial heterogeneity of cumulative growing season NEP for complex landscapes. Our method is based on spatially distributed information about physical and biological landscape variables and knowledge of …