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Surface characteristics of grasslands in Inner Mongolia as detected by micrometeorological measurements

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Abstract

A roving tower concept was used to compare a semi-arid grassland site in Inner Mongolia (China), which was fenced in 1979 and ungrazed thereafter (UG79) with differently grazed semi-arid steppe ecosystems. The study was conducted during three consecutive years characterised by contrasting precipitation. The different grazing intensities included continuously and moderately grazed (CG), winter grazed (WG), and heavily grazed (HG). Here, we compare the energy fluxes and surface parameters that characterise the differently managed plots. The main focus is on sensible heat flux (H), available energy (AE), surface temperature (T s ), and surface albedo (α). Systematic errors were excluded by a side-to-side intercomparison of the instruments, and systematic climatic differences were minimised by the close distance between the fixed and the roving eddy covariance tower. Statistically, AE and T s were always significantly different between two simultaneously measured grazing intensities. Whereas AE was higher at UG79 in all years (mean difference of about 19Wm−2), T s was typically lower at UG79 (mean differences of 0.4°C to about 2°C). The exception was the end of the vegetation period in 2004 when T s was 0.6°C higher at UG79 compared to CG. At UG79 α was typically significantly lower, and H was typically significantly higher. Consequently, latent heat fluxes (both as energy balance residual and directly measured) do not differ much between the different grazing intensities. It is concluded, that (1) the roving tower concept is able to detect differences due to grazing, (2) differences between the sites can be attributed to real surface differences, and (3) differences due to grazing intensities are small compared to interannual differences in surface fluxes.

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Acknowledgements

The work presented is supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG) within the Research Group 536 “MAGIM” (Matter fluxes in grasslands of Inner Mongolia as influenced by stocking rate) under grant BE 172/7-1. The authors want to express their gratitude to the technical staff, especially to Uwe Eichelmann, who took care of the preparation of the EC systems. Furthermore, the authors want to thank the reviewers for their very valuable help, and Dr. Ronald Queck and Dr. Thomas Grünwald for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, Department of Meteorology, Technische Universität Dresden, 01737, Tharandt, Germany

    Bettina Ketzer & Christian Bernhofer

  2. Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100029, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Huizhi Liu

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  1. Bettina Ketzer
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  2. Huizhi Liu
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  3. Christian Bernhofer
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Correspondence to Bettina Ketzer.

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Ketzer, B., Liu, H. & Bernhofer, C. Surface characteristics of grasslands in Inner Mongolia as detected by micrometeorological measurements. Int J Biometeorol 52, 563–574 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-008-0148-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-008-0148-5

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