Author
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Goodrich, David - Dave |
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GOFF, B. - 5342-45-00 (U. OF ARIZ.) |
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Submitted to: American Meteorological Society
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 1/21/1998 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Semi-arid regions cover almost one-fifth of the world's land surface and are significant sources of food, fiber, habitat, and open space. They are important components of the global climate system, interacting with other components to influence global circulation patterns while simultaneously being affected by those patterns. The complex nature of global systems requires an integrated approach to observing land-surface-atmosphere interactions. This paper highlights some of the major research themes occurring in the poster presentation session of this symposium. Most of the studies presented were part of the Semi-Arid Land-Surface-Atmosphere (SALSA) program, a multi-agency global change research effort led by the USDA Agricultural Research Service. SALSA researchers provided results for several integrated energy and water balance studies (surface fluxes, evapotranspiration, plant transpiration) for grassland, shrub steppe, and riparian areas within the USA and Mexico. SALSA researchers used direct measurements, remote sensing, and modeling techniques to evaluate these processes. Two other poster presentations provided results from the CASES-9 evapotranspiration inventory in Arizona; and others examined regional hydrometeorological processes in the USA and Argentina. Technical Abstract: Semi-arid regions cover one-fifth of the world's land surface and are important components of the global land-surface-atmosphere system. The complexity of this system requires an integrated approach to observing land-surface-atmosphere interactions. This integrated approach is demonstrated in the many poster presentations given as part of this symposium. The majority of studies focused on components of the energy or water balance (surface fluxes, evapotranspiration, transpiration) as they relate to global change processes in the USA or Mexico. Most researchers took a predominantly hydrometeorological approach to the research while others took a predominantly ecophysiological approach; the two approaches being integrated by common research objectives and coordinated measurement periods. Hydrometeorological variables, primarily in grassland, shrub steppe, and riparian areas, were evaluated by direct measurement, remote sensing, modeling, or a combination of techniques. Most of the studies presented were done as part of the integrated Semi-Arid Land-Surface-Atmosp studies included CASES-97 and JORNEX. Several presentations summarized two decades of research conducted as part of the AZET evapotranspiration inventory in Arizona, while one examined drought in Argentina and another modeled precipitation patterns over the continental USA. |
