No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Landscape-level understanding of forest carbon (C) dynamics is required to quantify the net contribution of forest biomes to the global C cycle and to help forest managers to understand the impacts of forest management activities to the C sequestration in forests. Landscape-level estimation of C exchanges in various ecosystems is also crucial for the validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) which may help in improving MODIS GPP algorithm and the estimation of national-scale C budget to meet Canada’s international greenhouse gas inventory reporting obligations.</p> <p>In this study, Carbon version of Canadian Land Surface Scheme (C-CLASS) was used to simulate historic C dynamics of a 2500 ha temperate Douglas fir forest landscape in Oyster River area of Vancouver Island in British Columbia from 1920 to 2005 and a 6275 ha boreal black spruce forest landscape at Chibougamau, Quebec from 1928 to 2005. The impacts of disturbance history and the climate variability on the landscape-level C stocks and fluxes were also investigated. The disturbance matrix of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector v3 (CBM-CFS3) was incorporated into C-CLASS to account for the removal of the C stocks by disturbance events. Study results indicate that GPP and autotrophic respiration (R_a) in the temperate Douglas fir forest landscape are sensitive to the air temperature variability. Stand replacing disturbance events can remove large amounts of C in the disturbed year, however, it takes a long period of time for the recovery of landscape-level total ecosystem carbon (TEC) to the initial state, which depends on forest age and the effects of historic climate variability. Our analysis further showed that in undisturbed forest landscape, simulated annual net ecosystem productivity (NEP) deviations were positively related to daily minimum and maximum temperatures in spring, while they were not sensitive to summer temperatures. Study results also showed that simulated landscape-level NEP is less sensitive to the changes in air temperature compared to other simulated C fluxes such as GPP, R_a and and heterotrophic respiration (R_h). Simulated landscape-level C stocks (aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, dead organic matter and soil organic matter) are sensitive to the changes in air temperature. This work suggests that the C-CLASS model can be used to investigate the impacts of climate variability and disturbance events on the historic C dynamics of forest landscapes. This study has also made it possible to analyze the importance of climate drivers and the development of methods for including climate sensitivity into inventory-based models.<strong></strong></p> <p>In addition, C-CLASS simulated GPP overCanada’s landmass (at 1-km resolution) in 2003 and its comparison with the MODIS GPP product (MOD17) indicated overestimation of MODIS GPP compared to the C-CLASS upscaled GPP overCanada’s landmass. This overestimation was attributed to the limitations in the components of MODIS GPP algorithm. It further suggests that the parameterization of light use efficiency in MODIS GPP algorithm is amenable to improvement based on observations of light use efficiency at eddy covariance flux tower sites or the photochemical reflectance index derived from satellite remote sensing data.</p> <p>This study would be helpful in calculating Canada’s national terrestrial ecosystem C budget which is important for making environmental policies and ecosystem management for enhancing the terrestrial C sink.<strong></strong></p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> Experiments were performed to investigate the effect that a gap between a heated fin and a porous plate has on the heat transfer performance of a simulated capillary evaporator. The heat transfer performance was examined for two porous plates with average pore radii of 50 and 200 μm respectively. Tests were performed for gap distances between 0 and 900 μm and heat fluxes ranging from 17 to 260 kW/m^2. The heat transfer performance of the simulated capillary evaporator initially increased as the gap distance was increased. However, a further increase in the gap distance caused a decrease in performance. The maximum heat transfer performance occurred at a smaller gap distance for the plate with the smaller pore radius. For small gap distances, persistent high temperature regions were observed on the surface of the heated foil that grew and became more frequent at higher heat fluxes. For larger gap distances, saturated regions that appeared on the foil at moderate heat fluxes suggest that microlayer evaporation may be taking place within the gap. At high heat fluxes, these saturated regions are no longer present, but the temperature of the heated foil remained stable.</p> <p> The heat transfer process in the porous media was examined using thermocouples embedded within the porous plates. These temperature measurements indicate that a two phase region forms within the porous plate for a pore radius of 200 μm. Little evidence of vapour was observed within the plate with a pore radius of 50 μm. In that case, there was more evidence of vapour present at the surface of the porous plate. There was less evidence of vapour at the surface of the porous plate for the larger gap distances, suggesting that the vapour escapes more easily through the gap at larger gap distances.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

An understanding of ecosystem-level carbon (C) sequestration, or net ecosystem production (NEP), requires the separation of heterotrophic, microbial respiration (RH) from autotrophic, root-derived respiration (RA) as the components of RS (i.e., NEP = NPP - RH). However, separating these two sources in situ has been problematic since they are closely coupled. This study utilizes two similarly aged Pinus taeda L. stands, 8 and 9 years-old, aimed at quantifying these two respiration components through in-situ root severing. In order to use root-severing treatments to separate RS into RH and RA components, confirmation of carbohydrate depletion coupled to RA decline is crucial. This study evaluated the changes in CO2 flux rates and carbohydrate supply upon root severing in Pinus taeda L. using a controlled laboratory validating a two-part field study. The first field study used root-severing cores to test in-situ if respiration components can be attained based on the depletion of carbohydrate supply. The second field study was aimed at how future changes in climate might affect the ability of forests to store C and how modern forestry practices might affect changes and was conducted over the course of two installations, spring and summer 2012. In this study we examined the effects of fertilization (0 and 100.9 kg N ha-1 ) and throughfall reduction (0 and -30%) on total soil respiration (RS) as well as the heterotrophic contribution to RS, in a fully replicated (n=4), 2x2 factorial design. In the controlled lab experiment RS and RA declined by 86% and 95% respectively by the end of an 86 day trial and NSC carbohydrates declined by 60% for soluble, 29% for insoluble, and 43% for total (soluble + insoluble). The decline of RA was highly correlated to with the decline of NSC’s at 0.90, 0.69 and 0.93 for soluble, insoluble and total, respectively. The companion field study revealed a mean decrease 21±0.5% of over the final three dates when severed root respiration stabilized. In the second study, testing throughfall reduction and fertilization levels there were no fertilization by throughfall reduction interactions on the contribution of RH to RS in either the spring or summer; however, the main effect of throughfall reduction was significant in the spring. During the spring, the mean contribution of RH to RS for ambient throughfall plots was 96±6.4%, while the mean contribution under throughfall reduction was 68±1.9%. During the summer, there were no differences among treatments and the overall contribution of RH to RS was 78±1.6%. Collectively, both of these studies revealed that the severing of roots from their primary energy source and the subsequent depletion of stored NSC that the use of in-situ methods allows for the quantification of soil respiration components RA and RH. Using these estimates to model NEP in the short-term can be variable by season, however, long-term monitoring may simplify future NEP modeling scenarios / Master of Science

Due to concern over the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, forest researchers and managers are currently studying the effects of varying silvicultural and harvesting practices on the carbon dynamics of intensely managed forest ecosystems. Soil carbon dioxide efflux resulting from soil microbial activity and root respiration is one of the major components of the total carbon flux in forested ecosystems. In an effort to examine the response of soil carbon dioxide efflux to changes in soil factors, nutrient availability, temperature, and moisture, soil respiration rates were measured monthly over an entire year in a two-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantation subjected to fertilization and mulching treatments. A dynamic, closed-chamber infrared gas analysis system was used to measure efflux rates from plots treated with one of four treatment combinations including: nitrogen (115 kg/ha) and phosphorus (11.5 kg/ha) fertilization with black landscape cloth (mulch), fertilization without mulch, mulch without fertilization, and no treatment (control). For each treatment combination, plots were established at the seedling base and 1.22 m away from the seedling base to examine the effect of seedling roots on soil carbon dioxide efflux rates. Soil temperature and moisture were measured at each chamber position monthly and soil coarse fragments, soil nutrient levels, percent carbon, root biomass and coarse woody debris were measured beneath 64 chambers at the end of the study. Fertilization had no significant effect on efflux rates during any of our monthly sampling sessions despite the fact that fertilized seedlings experienced significant increases in both above and belowground biomass. Conversely, regression analysis of growing season soil carbon dioxide efflux rates revealed a slightly negative correlation with both total seedling nutrient uptake and biomass. Rates in plots with mulching were significantly higher than rates from non-mulched plots during five monthly measurement sessions, and higher rates in mulched plots during winter months was attributable to warmer soil temperatures. Rates at the seedling base were always significantly higher than rates in plots away from the seedling. Although rates were always higher at the seedling base, the variability observed was only weakly correlated with the amount of pine roots present beneath respiration chambers. Utilizing soil temperature and moisture, soil carbon, and cuvette fine root biomass in a regression model explained 54% of the variance observed in efflux rates across the yearlong study period. Soil temperature alone explained 42.2% of the variance, followed by soil carbon and soil moisture at 5.2% and 2.7% respectively. The amount of pine fine roots under measurement chambers accounted for only 2.4% of the variance. An additional 1.5% was explained by other factors such as soil phosphorus, coarse woody debris, non-pine root biomass, and soil calcium. An examination of the factors affecting the spatial patterns of soil carbon dioxide efflux revealed that total soil carbon and the amount of fine pine root biomass beneath cuvette base rings explain 38% and 11% respectively, of the observed variability in mean annual soil carbon dioxide efflux from differing plots. The most influential factor affecting soil carbon dioxide efflux during the yearlong study period was soil temperature and modeling of seasonal soil carbon dioxide efflux rates from managed forests using both soil temperature and moisture should be achievable with the establishment of data sets and statistical models covering a range of sites differing in productivity, stand age, and management intensity. The establishment of data sets and statistical models across a variety of forest sites should account for the changing influence of soil carbon levels, aboveground biomass, microbial activity, organic matter inputs, and root biomass on soil carbon dioxide efflux. / Master of Science

No description available.

Majority of the rain producing monsoon systems in India form or intensify over the Bay of Bengal and move onto the land. We expect the air-sea interaction to be a crucial factor in the frequent genesis and intensification of monsoon systems over the Bay. Knowledge of air-sea fluxes is essential in determining the air-sea interactions. However, the Bay remains a poorly monitored ocean basin and the state of the near surface conditions during the monsoon months remains to be studied in detail. For example, we do not know yet which among the various flux formulae used in the General circulation models are appropriate over the Bay since there are no direct measurements of surface fluxes here during the peak monsoon months. The present thesis aims towards filing that gap. In this thesis fluxes were computed using the Bulk method, Inertial dissipation method and direct covariance method. The flux comparisons were reasonable during certain flow conditions which are clearly identified. When these conditions are not met the differences among the fluxes from these methods can be larger than the inherent uncertainties' in the methods. Stratification, flow distortion and averaging time are the key variables that give rise to the differences in the fluxes. It is found that there are significant differences in the surface flux estimates computed from different atmospheric General Circulation Model bulk parameterization schemes. In this thesis, the flow gradients are estimated by taking advantage of the natural pitch and roll motion of the ship. A attempt is made to gain insight into the flow distortion and its influence on the fluxes. In our analysis it is found that the displacement of the streamlines is an important component in quantifying flow distortion.

Submitted by Biblioteca de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica BGQ (bgq@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-05-16T17:00:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Microsoft Word - Vanessa Dissertaçao.pdf: 1678884 bytes, checksum: ee88f8d0505bb8844a68dc56e1473779 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-16T17:00:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Microsoft Word - Vanessa Dissertaçao.pdf: 1678884 bytes, checksum: ee88f8d0505bb8844a68dc56e1473779 (MD5) / Universidade Federal Fluminense. Instituto de Química. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica, Niterói, RJ / Este estudo analisa os fluxos de óxido nitroso (N 2 O) e amônia (NH 3 ) no Sistema Lagunar de Maricá-Guarapina (SLMG). O N 2 O é um dos gases do efeito estufa e está envolvido no consumo de ozônio (O 3 ) na estratosfera. A NH 3 pode levar a acidificação de ambientes terrestres e aquáticos, a eutrofização de sistemas aquáticos e produção de N 2 O. O SLMG vem sofrendo degradação da qualidade de suas á guas devido à urbanização e às atividades agropecuárias na região. Este sistema la gunar é composto por quatro lagoas interligadas entre si através de canais: Maricá, Ba rra, Padre e Guarapina. Para a análise de N 2 O foi utilizada a técnica da câmara estática flutua nte e 4 modelos de predição de fluxos (MPF). No caso da NH 3 foram feitas estimativas de fluxos também através de MPF. Os resultados deste estudo mostram que as quatro lagoa s do SLMG apresentam comportamentos distintos com relação aos fluxos dos dois gases ana lisados. As estimativas de taxas de emissão do sistema lagunar mostram que, apesar do sistema a presentar lagoas que parecem atuar como sorvedouro de N 2 O ou de NH 3 , num balanço geral, ele emite N para a atmosfera s ob uma ou outra forma. A taxa de emissão estimada variou entr e 92,15 g N dia -1 e 104,77 g N dia -1 . Outra informação que esta estimativa trouxe foi a d e que a maior parte das emissões ocorre sob a forma de NH 3 com emissão estimada de 84,79 g N dia -1 a 97,41 g N dia -1 . / This study examines the nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and ammonia (NH 3 ) fluxes in Maricá- Guarapina’s system. The N 2 O is a greenhouse gas and is involved in the consum ption of the ozone (O 3 ) in the stratosphere. The NH 3 can lead to acidification of terrestrial and aquat ic environments, eutrophication of aquatic systems and production of N 2 O. The SLMG is suffering degradation in the water’s quality due to urbanization and agricultural activities in the region. This system is composed for four lagoon interconnected between themselves through channels: Maricá, Barra, Father and Guarapi na. For the analysis of N 2 O was used the technique of the static chamber and 4 models predic tion fluxes (MPF). In the case of NH 3 were made estimates of fluxes through MPF too. The results of this study show that the four lagoons in the SLMG have different behaviors with r espect to the fluxes of the two gases analyzed. Estimates of the rates of emission in th e system lagoon show that despite the present system lagoons that seem act as sink of N 2 O and NH 3 , in a general balance, it gives N to the atmosphere in one form or another. The estim ated emission rate ranged between 92,15 g N -1 day -1 and 104,77 g N -1 day -1 . Other information that brought this estimate was that the majority of emissions occur in the form of NH 3 with estimated emission of 84,79 g N -1 day -1 to 97,41 g N -1 day -1 .