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Abstract Subtropical seagrass meadows play a major role in the coastal carbon cycle, but the nature of air–water CO2exchanges over these ecosystems is still poorly understood. The complex physical forcing of air–water exchange in coastal waters challenges our ability to quantify bulk exchanges of CO2and water (evaporation), emphasizing the need for direct measurements. We describe the first direct measurements of evaporation and CO2flux over a calcifying seagrass meadow near Bob Allen Keys, Florida. Over the 78‐d study, CO2emissions were 36% greater during the day than at night, and the site was a net CO2source to the atmosphere of 0.27 ± 0.17 μmol m−2s−1(x̅ ± standard deviation). A quarter (23%) of the diurnal variability in CO2flux was caused by the effect of changing water temperature on gas solubility. Furthermore, evaporation rates were ~ 10 times greater than precipitation, causing a 14% increase in salinity, a potential precursor of seagrass die‐offs. Evaporation rates were not correlated with solar radiation, but instead with air–water temperature gradient and wind shear. We also confirm the role of convective forcing on night‐time enhancement and day‐time suppression of gas transfer. At this site, temperature trends are regulated by solar heating, combined with shallow water depth and relatively consistent air temperature. Our findings indicate that evaporation and air–water CO2exchange over shallow, tropical, and subtropical seagrass ecosystems may be fundamentally different than in submerged vegetated environments elsewhere, in part due to the complex physical forcing of coastal air–sea gas transfer.
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Sparse, Empirically Optimized Quadrature for Broadband Spectral Integration
Abstract Broadband (spectrally‐integrated) radiation calculations are dominated by the expense of spectral integration, and many applications require fast parameterizations for computing radiative flux. Here we describe a novel approach using a linear weighted sum of monochromatic calculations at a small set of optimally‐chosen frequencies. The empirically‐optimized quadrature method is used to compute atmospheric boundary fluxes, net flux profiles throughout the atmosphere, heating rate profiles, and top‐of‐the‐atmosphere forcing by CO2, in the longwave for clear skies. We evaluate the method against two modern correlatedk‐distribution models and find that we can achieve comparable errors with 32 spectral points. We also examine the effect of minimizing different cost functions, and find that in order to accurately represent heating rates and CO2forcing, these quantities must be included in the cost function.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1916908
- PAR ID:
- 10471030
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 1942-2466
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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