Comment on bg-2022-131

Abstract

Based on eddy covariance (EC) measurements from 2016 to 2020, the impact of sky conditions on net ecosystem productivity (NEP) over Beihai wetland was examined. Sky conditions were classified into sunny, cloudy and overcast skies. On half-hourly timescale, the daytime NEP responds to the changing total photosynthetically active radiation (PARt) more efficiently under cloudy and overcast conditions than sunny conditions across seasons. Compared with sunny conditions, the apparent quantum yield (α) under overcast (cloudy) conditions increased 342.9 % (271.4 %) in spring, 17.6 % (20.6 %) in summer, 280.0 % (230.0 %) in autumn and 125.0 % (25.0 %) in winter, respectively. Unlike the patterns of half-hourly NEP, the daily NEP was significantly lower under overcast conditions than that under cloudy and sunny conditions. And the daily NEP peaked under cloudy skies when the clearness index (CI) fluctuated around 0.3–0.6. Additionally, the ecosystem light use efficiency (LUE) and water use efficiency (WUE) also changed with the variations in sky conditions. The daily LUE and WUE reached their maximum values under overcast (CI: 0–0.2) and cloudy conditions (CI: 0.2–0.4), respectively. NEP was mainly controlled by the diffuse photosynthetically active radiation (PARd) and air temperature (Ta), and the direct photosynthetically active radiation (PARb) had a secondary effect on NEP from half-hourly to monthly timescales. Path analysis revealed that PARb and Ta were the main controls affecting NEP under sunny conditions. While under cloudy and overcast conditions, PARd was the most responsible for the variations of NEP.