Synthetic ozone deposition and stomatal uptake at flux tower sites

We develop and evaluate a method to estimate O deposition and stomatal O uptake across networks of eddy covariance flux tower sites where O concentrations and O fluxes have not been measured. The method combines standard micrometeorological flux measurements, which constrain O deposition velocity and stomatal conductance, with a gridded dataset of observed surface O concentrations. Measurement errors are propagated through all calculations to quantify O flux uncertainties. We evaluate the method at three sites with O flux measurements: Harvard Forest, Blodgett Forest, and Hyytiälä Forest. The method reproduces 83% or more of the variability in daily stomatal uptake at these sites with modest mean bias (21% or less). At least 95% of daily average values agree with measurements within a factor of 2 and, according to the error analysis, the residual differences from measured O fluxes are consistent with the uncertainty in the underlying measurements. The product, called synthetic O flux or SynFlux, includes 43 FLUXNET sites in the United States and 60 sites in Europe, totaling 926 site years of data. This dataset, which is now public, dramatically expands the number and types of sites where O fluxes can be used for ecosystem impact studies and evaluation of air quality and climate models. Across these sites, the mean stomatal conductance and O deposition velocity is 0.03-1.0cms. The stomatal O flux during the growing season (typically April-September) is 0.5-11.0nmol O3ms with a mean of 4.5nmol Oms and the largest fluxes generally occur where stomatal conductance is high, rather than where O concentrations are high. The conductance differences across sites can be explained by atmospheric humidity, soil moisture, vegetation type, irrigation, and land management. These stomatal fluxes suggest that ambient O degrades biomass production and CO sequestration by 20%-24% at crop sites, 6%-29% at deciduous broadleaf forests, and 4%-20% at evergreen needleleaf forests in the United States and Europe.