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Microclimatic Effects of a Perched Peatland Forest Gap

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Abstract

We use a canopy-resolving regional atmospheric–forest large-eddy simulation to investigate the impact of fetch on flow separation and microclimates within a peatland surrounded by a forest (representing a forest gap). We initiate our simulation with observed vegetation characteristics and meteorological data within a peatland and a forest to accurately estimate the natural surface roughness and energy dynamics. The heterogeneous landscape of the Boreal Plains region results in peatlands often experiencing turbulent sheltering and turbulent effects from their surrounding ecosystems. This landscape configuration results in spatially dynamic surface–atmosphere exchanges of momentum, heat, and moisture, produced by flow-separation dynamics within the peatland that regulate the transport of such scalars in the sheltered region while promoting transport in the reattachment zone. Peatlands of the Boreal Plains are often small irregular shapes, which add further complexity when estimating the transport of scalars within these systems. As evapotranspiration is the dominant hydrologic flux in Boreal Plains, it is necessary to understand the dynamics and controls on evapotranspiration within these fetch-limited peatlands. Our simulations show that fetch limitations have no impact on the turbulent and evaporative dynamics of the peatland relative to the distance from the surface transition. However, we observe that a combination of peatland geometry (i.e., the ratio of peatland length to width) and/or the shape of the exit transition influences the flow region where greater funnelling of the flow of the peatland increases the regional wind speeds.

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Acknowledgements

This research would not have been possible without the contributions from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant – RP; Collaborative Research and Development Grant (CRDPJ477235-14) and industry partners Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Canadian Natural Resources Limited; Collaborative Research and Development Grant (418557-2011) and industry partners Suncor Energy Inc., Esso Imperial Oil Ltd., and Shell Canada Ltd.), Northern Scientific Training Program, Ducks Unlimited and the Ohio Supercomputing Center. Lastly, we would also like to thank George Sutherland, Dylan Harch, Patrick Pow, Kate Jamieson and Timothy Morin for their assistance in the field, lab or with data processing help. Lastly, we would like to thank the reviewers and the editor for their detailed and constructive comments.

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  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    A. Green & R. M. Petrone

  2. Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    G. Bohrer

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Green, A., Bohrer, G. & Petrone, R.M. Microclimatic Effects of a Perched Peatland Forest Gap. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 182, 95–118 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-021-00647-9

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