Welcome

The Berkeley Biometeorology Lab conducts experimental and modeling studies on the breathing of the biosphere.   This work is achieved by quantifying the fluxes of trace gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere. 

An overarching aim of our work is to understand how biospheric breathing varies in time and space.  The ultimate goal is to assess trace gas fluxes 'everywhere and all of the time'. To achieve this with time, we study how trace gas fluxes respond to set of biophysical forcings.  This includes atmospheric and soil variables, like solar radiation, air, soil and water temperature, wind speed, humidity, soil moisture and water table depth.  We also relate these fluxes to temporal variations in plant conditions, like phenology, physiological capacity and leaf area index. To achieve knowledge with space, we relate trace gas fluxes to a set of ecological and biogeochemical structural and functional traits (nitrogen content, photosynthetic pathway, soil texture) and management.  

Our field experiments use the eddy covariance method to measure carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy fluxes on hourly to decadal time scales.  We interpret these fluxes from the scale of leaves, the underlying soil, plants, landscape and planetary boundary layer with auxiliary plant, water and soil measurements, field campaigns and remote sensing products using sensors on towers, drones and satellites.

Our research data is contributed to the global network, FLUXNET, of which we are co-founders, and the regional network AmeriFlux, of which we are among the founding team members.

Our modeling work uses the CANVEG model to evaluate how trace gas fluxes at the leaf scale integrate to the canopy or ecosystem scale.  The model combines biophysical algorithms that compute the energy balance, photosynthesis and stomatal conductance on the sun and shade fractions of leaves through multiple levels of the canopy.