Characteristics of Momentum and Heat Transfer over Semiarid Grasslands with Different Grazing Intensities in Inner Mongolia, China

Wang Lei , Liu Hui-Zhi , Ketzer, Bettina , Feng Jian-Wu , Bernhofer, Christian

2011 ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC SCIENCE LETTERS 2011   4(卷), 5(期), (264-269页)

查看原文

The drag coefficient (C-d) and heat transfer coefficient (C-h) with the bulk transfer scheme are usually used to calculate the momentum and heat fluxes in meteorological models. The aerodynamic roughness length (z(0m)) and thermal roughness length (z(0h)) are two crucial parameters for bulk transfer equations. To improve the meteorological models, the seasonal and interannual variations of z(0m), z(0h), coefficient kB(-1), C-d, and C-h were investigated based on eddy covariance data over different grazed semiarid grasslands of Inner Mongolia during the growing seasons (May to September) from 2005 to 2008. For an ungrazed Leymus chinensis grassland (ungrazed since 1979), z(0m) and z(0h) had significant seasonal and interannual variations. z(0m) was affected by the amount and distribution of rainfall. kB(-1) exhibited a relatively negative variation compared with z(0h), which indicates that the seasonal variation of z(0h) cannot be described by kB(-1). To parameterize z(0m) and z(0h), the linear regressions between ln(z(0m)), ln(z(0h)), and the leaf area index (LAI) were performed with R-2 = 0.71 and 0.83. The monthly average kB(-1) was found to decrease linearly with LAI. The four-year averaged values of C-d and C-h were 4.5x10(-3) and 3.9x10(-3), respectively. The monthly average C-d only varied by 8% while the variation of C-h was 18%, which reflects the different impacts of dead vegetation on momentum and heat transfer at this natural grassland. Moreover, with the removal of vegetation cover, grazing intensities reduced z(0m), z(0h), C-d, and C-h.