Abstract

A maritime pine plantation in Central Portugal that has been continuously monitored using the eddy-covariance technique for carbon fluxes since a wildfire in 2017, was significantly affected by two storms during December 2019 that resulted in a large-sale windthrow. This study analyses the impacts of this windthrow on the aerodynamic characteristics of zero-plane displacement and roughness length, and, ultimately, their implications for the turbulent fluxes. The turbulent fluxes were only affected to a minor degree by the windthrow, but the footprint area of the flux tower changed markedly, so that the target area of the measurements had to be re-determined.

Highlights

  • IntroductionHeterogeneous surfaces have an influence on turbulent energy and mass fluxes (Stoy et al, 2013)

  • Large-eddy simulations have suggested that fluxes are at their maximum at a distance of about 10 times the canopy height from the forest edge (Kanani-Sühring and Raasch, 2015;Dupont and Brunet, 2009)

  • The post-wildfire flux site in Vila de Rei, central Portugal (Oliveira et al, 2021) offered an opportunity to study the impacts of an abrupt change in aerodynamic characteristics without a concomitant change in stand heterogeneity, virtually like a laboratory experiment

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Summary

Introduction

Heterogeneous surfaces have an influence on turbulent energy and mass fluxes (Stoy et al, 2013). Increased fluxes have been found at forest edges (Klaassen et al, 2002). Large-eddy simulations have suggested that fluxes are at their maximum at a distance of about 10 times the canopy height from the forest edge (Kanani-Sühring and Raasch, 2015;Dupont and Brunet, 2009). An increase in flux could be associated with an increase in stand heterogeneity (Foken et al, 2021). 25 An intrinsic limitation of the cited studies is that they cannot find a suitable measure of heterogeneity that is correlated with turbulent fluxes. The post-wildfire flux site in Vila de Rei, central Portugal (Oliveira et al, 2021) offered an opportunity to study the impacts of an abrupt change in aerodynamic characteristics without a concomitant change in stand heterogeneity, virtually like a laboratory experiment. The storms Elsa and Fabien caused an extensive windthrow of the - dead - burnt maritime

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