CAREER: Land-Atmosphere Coupling and Feedback in the Context of Climate Change

陆地表面和大气之间的相互作用是地球表面水、能量和碳收支的核心。这些相互作用控制着广泛的过程，对人类有直接影响，包括近地表气候变化、云形成和降水。陆地-大气过程在大规模天气和气候预测中仍然是一个重大挑战，因为它们本身的复杂性和研究它们所需的跨学科方法。同样，砍伐森林和农业生产等塑造陆地景观的人类活动直接影响它们所处的大气，导致陆地表面功能对所经历的表面状况的反馈。这些相互作用植根于地表植被-土壤系统的结构和功能，以及这些系统对大气强迫的生态响应。该项目将把新的高分辨率计算机建模工具和数据分析方法的开发与几十年田间系统操作实验中开发的关于植物对气候的响应的丰富信息结合起来，以促进我们对未来几十年陆地-大气相互作用如何演变的理解。这一职业项目将有助于培养下一代科学家和工程师，他们在技术上有能力并有动力研究复杂的环境系统，以实现可持续的未来。该项目的更广泛影响结合了对本科生和研究生的跨学科培训，以及在高中水平服务于未被充分代表的STEM群体的外展项目。该奖项将通过以下方式促进我们对陆地-大气相互作用和反馈的基本理解：(1)开发高保真3D建模工具，用于高空间和时间分辨率的陆地-大气交换过程及其对大气发展和陆面响应的影响；(2)利用新的分析方法在高分辨率模拟输出中诊断陆地-大气耦合和反馈；(3)将这一新的模拟平台应用于跨多个植被和地理区域的气候变化情景。对最近的陆地-大气相互作用场活动进行高分辨率模拟，将能够根据对陆地-大气碳、水、能量和动量通量、近地表气候变化、大气边界层结构和云形成的观测来验证模拟框架。将使用新的统计工具来量化信息流、方向性，并明确量化地表和大气状态和通量之间的反馈。这些工具将被用来分析一套模拟，旨在量化植被结构、生理和生化功能、大气状态和低层大气结构对新出现的陆地-大气相互作用和反馈的相对作用。总体而言，这个职业项目将使我们更好地了解未来几十年土地-大气相互作用将如何以及为什么会发生变化。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The interactions between the terrestrial land surface and the atmosphere are central to the Earth’s surface water, energy and carbon budgets. These interactions control a wide range of processes with a direct impact on humanity, including near-surface climate variability, cloud formation and precipitation. Land-atmosphere processes remain a significant challenge in large-scale weather and climate prediction due to their inherent complexity and the trans-disciplinary approach required to study them. Likewise, human activities that shape terrestrial landscapes such as deforestation and agricultural production directly impact the atmosphere in which they exist, resulting in the feedback of land surface functioning onto the surface conditions that are experienced. These interactions are rooted in the structure and function of the vegetation-soil systems at the land surface, and the ecological responses of these systems to atmospheric forcing. This project will integrate the development of novel high-resolution computer modeling tools and data analytical approaches with the rich information on plant responses to climate developed over decades of field system manipulation experiments to advance our understanding of how land-atmosphere interactions will evolve over the coming decades. This CAREER project will contribute to the development of the next generation of scientists and engineers who are technically equipped and motivated to study complex environmental systems to enable a sustainable future. The broader impacts of this project combine inter-disciplinary training of students at the undergraduate and graduate level with outreach programs serving underrepresented groups in STEM at the high school level.This award will advance our fundamental understanding of land-atmosphere interactions and feedback by: (1) developing high-fidelity 3D modeling tools for high-spatial and temporal resolution of land-atmosphere exchange processes and their consequent impacts on atmospheric development and land surface response; (2) utilizing new analytical approaches to diagnose land-atmosphere coupling and feedback in high resolution simulation output; (3) applying this new simulation platform to climate change scenarios across multiple vegetation and geographic domains. High resolution simulations of recent land-atmosphere interaction field campaigns will allow for validation of the simulation framework against observations of land-atmosphere carbon, water, energy and momentum fluxes, near surface climate variation, atmospheric boundary layer structure and cloud formation. Novel statistical tools will be used to quantify information flow, directionality and explicitly quantify feedback between surface and atmospheric states and fluxes. These tools will be used to analyze a suite of simulations designed to quantify the relative roles of vegetation structure, physiological and biochemical function, atmospheric state and the structure of the lower atmosphere on emergent land-atmosphere interactions and feedbacks. Overall this CAREER project will lead to a better understanding of how and why land-atmosphere interactions will change in the coming decades.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.