SGP/MET/E21 - Forest decline effect on fluxes

The Okmulgee Forest, particularly oak trees, has declined in health in the past two years 
as a result of a combination of drought stress leading to fungus infestation. About one 
third of the oak trees in the vicinity of and upwind of the Okmulgee tower have died and 
another one third are in significant decline on October 11, 2012. There is evidence of 
decline having begun in October 2010.

Clearly, this condition should be reflected in reduced latent heat and CO2 fluxes, and 
increased sensible heat flux in comparison to years previous to Autumn 2010. Changes in the 
fluxes will be investigated and the results will be presented at the 2013 ASR meeting. 
The state of the forest may also be reflected in other variables measured by the MET system.

• Relative humidity observed by the Raman lidar(rh_mean)
• Temperature mean(temp_mean)
• Atmospheric pressure(atmos_pressure)
• TBRG precipitation total(tbrg_precip_total)
• Wind speed arithmetic mean(wspd_arith_mean)
• Wind speed vector mean(wspd_vec_mean)
• TBRG precipitation total, corrected(tbrg_precip_total_corr)
• Wind direction vector mean(wdir_vec_mean)
• Vapor pressure mean, calculated(vapor_pressure_mean)
• Wind direction vector mean standard deviation(wdir_vec_std)