VEGETATION-ATMOSPHERE INTERACTIONS

1st Credit: Introduction to Biosphere-Geosphere Interactions; Basic concepts; Energy exchanges; Mass and momentum fluxes.
2nd Credit: Radiation; Basic laws; Radiation fluxes in the natural environment; Shortwave radiation; Longwave radiation; Net all-wave radiation; Radiation budget; Radiative properties of leaf canopies; Instruments and measurements.
3rd Credit: Energy balance; Soil thermal properties; Heat conduction in the soil; Soil temperature regime; Introduction to measurement techniques and data logging equipment; Practical setup of an environmental monitoring station.
4th Credit: Water and hygrometry; Thermodynamics of evaporation; Water vapour fluxes and transpiration; Fick's law and diffusion; Techniques for measuring leaf gas exchanges.
5th Credit: Wind; Laminar and turbulent flow; Statistical properties of turbulence; Navier-Stokes equation and turbulent transport; Momentum transfer; Logarithmic wind profile; Concept of boundary-layer at leaf and canopy scales; Aerodynamical properties of vegetation.
6th Credit: Introduction to the Eddy-Covariance technique; Heat and mass fluxes above vegetation; Sonic anemometry; Infra-Red gas analyzers.
7th Credit: Introduction to energy budget partitioning; Sensible and latent heat fluxes; Bowen ratio; Flux-gradient relationships; Aerodynamical properties of canopies; Evapotranspiration and Penman-Monteith equation.
8th Credit: Integrated view of energy, water, and carbon fluxes; Carbon budget of vegetation canopies; Net ecosystem exchange; Carbon flux partitioning; Carbon sequestration and its role in mitigation of climate change; Mathematical modelling of plant canopies and Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transfer schemes.