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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,603 records · Page 89
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Structural and Biochemical Characterization of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 12, the Last Enzyme of Proline Catabolism in Plants

Heterokonts, Alveolata protists, green algae from Charophyta and Chlorophyta divisions, and all Embryophyta plants possess an aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) gene named ALDH12. Here, we provide a biochemical characterization of two ALDH12 family members from the lower plant Physcomitrella patens and higher plant Zea mays. We show that ALDH12 encodes an NAD + -dependent glutamate γ-semialdehyde dehydrogenase (GSALDH), which irreversibly converts glutamate γ-semialdehyde (GSAL), a mitochondrial intermediate of the proline and arginine catabolism, to glutamate. Sedimentation equilibrium and small-angle X-ray scattering analyses reveal that in solution both plant GSALDHs exist as equilibrium between a domain-swapped dimer and the dimer-of-dimers tetramer. Plant GSALDHs share very low-sequence identity with bacterial, fungal, and animal GSALDHs (classified as ALDH4), which are the closest related ALDH superfamily members. Nevertheless, the crystal structure of ZmALDH12 at 2.2-Å resolution shows that nearly all key residues involved in the recognition of GSAL are identical to those in ALDH4, indicating a close functional relationship with ALDH4. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis suggests that the transition from ALDH4 to ALDH12 occurred during the evolution of the endosymbiotic plant ancestor, prior to the evolution of green algae and land plants. Finally, ALDH12 expression in maize and moss is downregulated in response to salt and drought stresses, possibly to maintain proline levels. Taken together, these results provide molecular insight into the biological roles of the plant ALDH12 family.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

PLAT domain protein 1 (PLAT1/PLAFP) binds to the Arabidopsis thaliana plasma membrane and inserts a lipid

Robust agricultural yields depend on the plant's ability to fix carbon amid variable environmental conditions. Over seasonal and diurnal cycles, the plant must constantly adjust its metabolism according to available resources or external stressors. The metabolic changes that a plant undergoes in response to stress are well understood, but the long-distance signaling mechanisms that facilitate communication throughout the plant are less studied. The phloem is considered the predominant conduit for the bidirectional transport of these signals in the form of metabolites, nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. Lipid trafficking through the phloem in particular attracted our attention due to its reliance on soluble lipid-binding proteins (LBP) that generate and solubilize otherwise membrane-associated lipids. The Phloem Lipid-Associated Family Protein (PLAFP) from Arabidopsis thaliana is generated in response to abiotic stress as is its lipid-ligand phosphatidic acid (PA). PLAFP is proposed to transport PA through the phloem in response to drought stress. To understand the interactions between PLAFP and PA, nearly 100 independent systems comprised of the protein and one PA, or a plasma membrane containing varying amounts of PA, were simulated using atomistic classical molecular dynamics methods. In these simulations, PLAFP is found to bind to plant plasma membrane models independent of the PA concentration. When bound to the membrane, PLAFP adopts a binding pose where W41 and R82 penetrate the membrane surface and anchor PLAFP. This triggers a separation of the two loop regions containing W41 and R82. Subsequent simulations indicate that PA insert into the β -sandwich of PLAFP, driven by interactions with multiple amino acids besides the W41 and R82 identified during the insertion process. Finally, fine-tuning the protein-membrane and protein-PA interface by mutating a selection of these amino acids may facilitate engineering plant signaling processes by modulating the binding response.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

A late glacial paleoenvironmental and climate record from the Sierra de Juarez, Baja California

Ciénegas are desert wetlands that are strongly correlated with the stability of the hydrologic cycle in arid landscapes. However, these environments are particularly vulnerable to climate change, drought, water diversion, and fire suppression which all have contributed to the degradation of ciénegas along the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. Therefore, identifying the timing of precipitation patterns in this region is of particular interest because of its relationship to many ecological responses of the landscape such as groundwater recharge and fire. Here, we present the first-ever fire paleoenvironmental record from Ciénega Chimeneas, a ciénega complex in the Sierra de Juárez of Baja California. We explore how changes in the amount and seasonality of moisture affected ciénega complexes and fire activity from across the southwestern North American region over the past 45,000 years. Further, our record suggests that during the late glacial period, 41,000–21,000 cal yr BP, the increase of Larrea and Quercus indicate an increase in summer precipitation. Subsequently, when summer precipitation increased, pollen preservation and pollen accumulation rates (PAR) also increased. Increased vegetation allowed for increased fire activity during the late glacial period. Regionally, most of the comparison sites also indicated wet conditions during the full glacial period. However, around 21,000 cal yr BP, effective moisture decreased resulting in a dramatic change in the vegetation assemblage. Specifically, the summer wet taxa disappeared, while pollen preservation and PAR decreased, suggesting a dry period until ~14,000 cal yr BP. Little fire activity is recorded after 21,000 cal yr BP, likely due to the absence of fuels. At ~14,000 cal yr BP, Larrea and Quercus reappear suggesting increased summer precipitation. However, the appearance of Cyperaceae and increases in grasses suggest increased winter precipitation. We suggest that the combination of summer wet and winterwet taxa ~14,000 cal yr BP represents an increase in ENSO conditions, while the summer moisture controls remained relatively constant.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Convergence of daily light use efficiency in irrigated and rainfed C3 and C4 crops

The goal of this study is to quantify variability of daily light use efficiency (LUE) based on radiation absorbed by photosynthetically active vegetation (LUEgreen) in C3 and C4 crops. Data contained GPP, fAPAR, total and green leaf area index taken over 16 site years of irrigated and rainfed maize and 8 site years of soybean in 2001–2008 including years with quite strong drought events. LUEgreen in irrigated and rainfed sites were statistically indistinguishable showing low sensitivity to water availability. Seasonal changes of LUEgreen remained remarkably small over a wide range of water supply, leaf area index and weather conditions. The magnitude and composition of incident radiation affected the magnitude of the day-to-day LUEgreen change – increases in incident PAR caused statistically significant decreases of LUEgreen. Convergence of LUEgreen to a narrow range in irrigated and rainfed crops brought important implications for understanding mechanisms of plant response to stress and remote estimation of primary production in crops.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Decoupling of greenness and gross primary productivity as aridity decreases

Ecosystem primary productivity is a key ecological process influencing many ecosystem services, including carbon storage. Thus, clarifying how primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems responds to climatic variability can reveal key mechanisms that will drive future changes in the global carbon budget. Satellite products of canopy greenness are widely used as proxies for vegetation productivity to evaluate how ecosystems respond to climate variability. However, to what degree inter-annual variations in productivity are consistent with greenness and how this relationship varies spatially remains unclear. Here we investigated the strength of the coupling between inter-annual variations in leaf area index (LAI, a measure of greenness) and ecosystem gross primary productivity (GPP) derived from eddy covariance towers, i.e., the r2 of the LAI-GPP relationship. Overall, inter-annual GPP and LAI were highly coupled (i.e., high r2) in arid grasslands, but were fully decoupled in mesic evergreen broadleaf forests, indicating that this relationship varies strongly along aridity gradients. A possible mechanism of the spatial variation in the LAI-GPP relationship is that the tradeoff between ecosystem structure (LAI) and physiology (photosynthesis per unit leaf area) becomes stronger in more humid climates. Land models overestimated the r2 of LAI-GPP correlation for most ecosystem types and failed to capture the spatial pattern along aridity gradients. We conclude that relying on greenness products for evaluating inter-annual changes in vegetation productivity may bias assessments, especially in tropical rainforest ecosystems. Our findings may also reconcile observed disparities between responses in greenness and GPP during drought in Amazon forests.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Implication of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering on compound precipitation and temperature extremes in Africa

Three Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) models that simulated the G4 experiment of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) were used to investigate the impact of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) on combined temperature and precipitation extremes in Africa that can have greater negative impacts on human and the environment than individual rainfall or temperature extremes. The examined compound extremes included the dry (R warm|dry and R cold|dry ) and wet (R warm|wet and R cold|wet ) modes assessed during the injection (SAI, 2050-2069) and post-injection (postSAI, 2070-2089) periods compared with the historical period (1986-2005). We found a significant projected change in the occurrence of both wet and dry modes during SAI and postSAI related to the historical period. The magnitude and sign of this change depend on the season and the geographical location. During the SAI and postSAI, the wet (R warm|wet and R cold|wet ) modes are projected to be significantly lower while the dry modes are noted to increase in a large part of African continent depending on the season and the geographical location and may consequently leads to an increase of the droughts prone areas. Furthermore, the termination effect is noted to re duce the occurrence of dry modes, which may reduce the potential negative effects of the injection after halting. As the effect may vary from one region to another and according to the season, it suggested assessing the key sector impacts of SAI. Thus, this change in dry modes due to SAI could affect all activities which depend on water resources such as water supply, agriculture and food production, energy demand, and production with adverse effects on health, security, and sustainable development, but this needs to be assessed and quantified at regional scales.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Local Spatial Heterogeneity of Holocene Carbon Accumulation throughout the Peat Profile of an Ombrotrophic Northern Minnesota Bog

Here, we evaluated the spatial heterogeneity of historical carbon accumulation rates in a forested, ombrotrophic bog in Minnesota to aid understanding of responses to an ongoing decade-long warming manipulation. Eighteen peat cores indicated that the bog has been accumulating carbon for over 11,000 years, to yield 176±40 kg C m –2 to 225±58 cm of peat depth. Estimated peat basal ages ranged from 5100 to 11,100 cal BP. The long-term apparent rate of carbon accumulation over the entire peat profile was 22±2 kg C m –2 yr –1 . Plot location within the study area did not affect carbon accumulation rates, but estimated basal ages were younger in profiles from plots closer to the bog lagg and farther from the bog outlet. In addition, carbon accumulation varied considerably over time. Early Holocene net carbon accumulation rates were 30±6 g C m –2 yr –1 . Around 3300 calendar BP, net carbon accumulation rates dropped to 15±8 g C m –2 yr –1 until the last century when net accumulation rates increased again to 74±57 g C m –2 yr –1 . During this period of low accumulation, regional droughts may have lowered the water table, allowing for enhanced aerobic decomposition and making the bog more susceptible to fire. These results suggest that experimental warming treatments, as well as a future warmer climate may reduce net carbon accumulation in peat in this and other southern boreal peatlands. Furthermore, our we caution against historical interpretations extrapolated from one or a few peat cores.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Fast Pyrolysis of Opuntia ficus-indica (Prickly Pear) and Grindelia squarrosa (Gumweed)

Opuntia ficus-indica (prickly pear) and Grindelia squarrosa (gumweed) are two exceptionally drought tolerant plant species capable of growing in arid and semiarid environments. Additionally, they have unique cell wall structures. Prickly pear contains pectin and high levels of ash (16.1%) that is predominantly Ca and K. Gumweed has high levels of extractives that contain grindelic acid and monoterpenoids. The objective of this paper was to evaluate how these unique cell wall components alter the pyrolysis performance of prickly pear and gumweed. Using a tandem micropyrolyzer with GC-MS/FID/TCD, a detailed account of the product slate is given for products generated between 450 and 650 degrees C. Pyrolysis of prickly pear showed that the high levels of ash increase the amount of organics volatilized and shifted product pools, making it possible to generate up to 7.3% carbonyls vs 3.8% for Pinus taeda (loblolly pine) and 10.5% hydrocarbons vs 1.8% for pine depending on reaction conditions. Pyrolysis of gumweed showed that the extractives were volatilized at low temperatures and led to 17.7% grindelic acid and monoterpenoids derivatives in the condensed vapor phase. In conclusion, at high temperatures, the extractives and other biomass components are converted to aromatics and C 5 -C 10 hydrocarbons, giving a total yield of 16.6%, and also generate large amounts of C 2 -C 4 hydrocarbons, 11.3%.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dominance of Particulate Mercury in Stream Transport and Rapid Watershed Recovery from Wildfires in Northern California, USA

Frequency and intensity of wildfires are expected to increase due to climate change, especially in areas with a long summer drought. Forests are a major sink for the global pollutant mercury (Hg), and fluvial transport of Hg from recently burned watersheds has not been widely investigated. Here, we examined two years of fluvial transport of Hg and its speciation (total Hg, methyl-Hg, particulate, and dissolved forms) under storm events and baseflow in two recently burned watersheds with different burned proportions and one nonburned reference watershed in the Coastal Ranges of northern California. We examined postfire storm-event transport of Hg and its methylated form (methyl-Hg), addressed the importance of the “initial runoff pulse” to postfire Hg fluvial transport and its predominant association with suspended solids, and elucidated potential sources of Hg exports from the burned landscapes using geochemical indicators, which suggested that ash materials were likely the significant sources of particulates in the first high-flow season postfire but not subsequently. The maximum total suspended solid and total Hg levels in the “first pulse” at the severely burned watershed were 442 and 46 times higher, respectively, than those at the reference watershed. Stream suspended solid and Hg levels declined substantially in the burned watersheds after just a few months of rainfall likely due to the rapid regrowth of vegetation commonly observed in postfire landscapes, implying that the wildfire effects on immediate Hg inputs from the burned landscape are at most transient in nature.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Consumptive Water Use from Electricity Generation in the Southwest under Alternative Climate, Technology, and Policy Futures

This research assesses climate, technological, and policy impacts on consumptive water use from electricity generation in the Southwest over a planning horizon of nearly a century. We employed an integrated modeling framework taking into account feedbacks between climate change, air temperature and humidity, and consequent power plant water requirements. These direct impacts of climate change on water consumption by 2095 differ with technology improvements, cooling systems, and policy constraints, ranging from a 3–7% increase over scenarios that do not incorporate ambient air impacts. Upon additional factors being changed that alter electricity generation, water consumption increases by up to 8% over the reference scenario by 2095. With high penetration of wet recirculating cooling, consumptive water required for low-carbon electricity generation via fossil fuels will likely exacerbate regional water pressure as droughts become more common and population increases. Adaptation strategies to lower water use include the use of advanced cooling technologies and greater dependence on solar and wind. Water consumption may be reduced by 50% in 2095 from the reference, requiring an increase in dry cooling shares to 35–40%. Alternatively, the same reduction could be achieved through photovoltaic and wind power generation constituting 60% of the grid, consistent with an increase of over 250% in technology learning rates.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Supply Cost and Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Dry and Ensiled Biomass Sorghum for Biofuel Production

Here we discuss Biomass sorghum as a promising feedstock for cellulosic biorefineries because of its high yield and drought tolerance. However, the difficulty of effectively drying sorghum in some regions means that it may require different handling than previously studied grassy feedstocks. This study compares the delivered cost and life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of field drying and baling, module storage (wrapped, densely packed biomass), pelletizing, and ensiling. Ensiling has not been widely considered for use in bioenergy production. For farms within 66 km of the biorefinery, ensiled biomass is of the lowest cost and GHG strategy despite additional cost and energy demand for hauling wet biomass. Field drying and baling, if feasible, is the most cost-effective option for sorghum between 66 km and 104 km, beyond which pellets are preferable. A 2000 bone-dry-metric ton (bdt)/day biorefinery can source sorghum with 18 bdt/ha yield cultivated on 5% of surrounding land at costs ranging from $\$$122 (silage) to $\$$167 (pellets)/bdt and a life-cycle GHG footprint of 111 (silage) to 179 kg CO2e/bdt (pellets). With 28 bdt/ha biomass yield, 10% cultivation of surrounding land, and low fertilizer application, costs can range from $\$$66 (silage) to $\$$85 (pellets)/ bdt and GHG footprint of 43 (silage) to 96 kg CO2e (pellets)/bdt.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Using Methyl Bromide for Interspecies Cell–Cell Signaling and As a Reporter in a Model Soil Consortium

Synthetic microbial communities are emerging as model systems for studying consortia-scale phenotypes. To establish synthetic biology tools for studying these communities in hard-to-image environmental materials, we evaluated whether a single member of a model soil consortium (MSC) can be programmed to report on gene expression without requiring matrix disruption. For these studies, we targeted a five member MSC that includes Dyadobacter fermentans, Ensifer adhaerens, Rhodococcus sp003130705, Streptomyces sp001905665, and Variovorax beijingensis. By coupling the expression of a methyl halide transferase to a constitutive promoter, we show that Variovorax beijingensis can be programmed to synthesize methyl halides that accumulate in the soil headspace at levels that are ≥24-fold higher than all other MSC members across a range of environmentally-relevant hydration conditions. We find that methyl halide production can report on a MSC promoter that is activated by changes in water potential, and we demonstrate that a synthetic gas signal can be read out directly using gas chromatography and indirectly using a soil-derived Methylorubrum that is programmed to produce a visual output in response to methyl halides. Finally, these tools will be useful for future studies that investigate how MSC respond to dynamic hydration conditions, such as drought and flood events induced by climate change, which can alter soil water potential and induce the release of stored carbon.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Novel Membrane-Associated Protein Aids Bacterial Colonization of Maize

The soil environment affected by plant roots and their exudates, termed the rhizosphere, significantly impacts crop health and is an attractive target for engineering desirable agricultural traits. Engineering microbes in the rhizosphere is one approach to improving crop yields that directly minimizes the number of genetic modifications made to plants. Soil microbes have the potential to assist with nutrient acquisition, heat tolerance, and drought response if they can persist in the rhizosphere in the correct numbers. Unfortunately, the mechanisms by which microbes adhere and persist on plant roots are poorly understood, limiting their application. This study examined the membrane proteome shift upon adherence to roots in two bacteria of interest, Klebsiella variicola and Pseudomonas putida. From this surface proteome data, we identified a novel membrane protein from a non-laboratory isolate of P. putida that increases binding to maize roots using unlabeled proteomics. When this protein was moved from the environmental isolate to a common lab strain (P. putida KT2440), we observed increased binding capabilities of P. putida KT2440 to both abiotic mimic surfaces and maize roots. We observed a similar increased binding capability to maize roots when the protein was heterologously expressed in K. variicola and Stutzerimonas stutzeri. With the discovery of this novel binding protein, we outline a strategy for harnessing natural selection and wild isolates to build more persistent strains of bacteria for field applications and plant growth promotion.

rhizosphere, colonization, membrane proteome, plan↗
DOE OSTI2018

Anthropogenic Warming Impacts on Today's Sierra Nevada Snowpack and Flood Risk: WARMING IMPACTS ON SNOWPACK AND FLOOD RISK

This study investigates temperature impacts to snowpack and runoff-driven flood risk over the Sierra Nevada during the extremely wet year of 2016–2017, which followed the extraordinary California drought of 2011–2015. By perturbing near-surface temperatures from a 9-km dynamically downscaled simulation, a series of offline land surface model experiments explore how Sierra Nevada hydrology has already been impacted by historical anthropogenic warming and how these impacts evolve under future warming scenarios. Results show that historical warming reduced 2016–2017 Sierra Nevada snow water equivalent by 20% while increasing early-season runoff by 30%. An additional one third to two thirds loss of snowpack is projected by the end of the century, depending on the emission scenario, with middle elevations experiencing the most significant declines. Notably, the number of days in the future with runoff exceeding 20 mm nearly doubles under a mitigation emission scenarios and triples under a business-as-usual scenario. A smaller snow-to-rain ratio, as opposed to increased snowmelt, is found to be the primary mechanism of temperature impacts to Sierra snowpack and runoff. These findings are consequential to the prevalence of early-season floods in the Sierra Nevada. In the Feather River Watershed, historical warming increased runoff by over one third during the period of heaviest precipitation in February 2017. This suggests that historical anthropogenic warming may have exacerbated runoff conditions underlying the Oroville Dam spillway overflow that occurred in this month. As warming continues in the future, the potential for runoff-based flood risk may rise even higher.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Soil Moisture Stress as a Major Driver of Carbon Cycle Uncertainty

Future projections suggest an increase in drought globally with climate change. Current vegetation models typically regulate the plant photosynthetic response to soil moisture stress through an empirical function, rather than a mechanistic response where plant water potentials respond to changes in soil water. This representation of soil moisture stress may introduce significant uncertainty into projections for the terrestrial carbon cycle. We examined the use of the soil moisture limitation function in historical and future emissions scenarios in nine Earth system models. We found that soil moisture-limited productivity across models represented a large and uncertain component of the simulated carbon cycle, comparable to 3–286% of current global productivity. Approximately 40–80% of the intermodel variability was due to the functional form of the limitation equation alone. Our results highlight the importance of implementing mechanistic water limitation schemes in models and illuminate several avenues for improving projections of the land carbon sink.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Global Freshwater Availability Below Normal Conditions and Population Impact Under 1.5 and 2 °C Stabilization Scenarios

Based on the large ensembles of the half a degree additional warming, prognosis, and projected impacts historical, +1.5 and +2 °C experiments, we quantify changes in the magnitude of water availability (i.e., precipitation minus actual evapotranspiration; a function of monthly precipitation flux, latent heat flux, and surface air temperature) below normal conditions (less than median, e.g., 20th percentile water availability). In this study, we found that, relative to the historical experiment, water availability below normal conditions of the +1.5 and +2 °C experiments would decrease in the midlatitudes and the tropics, indicating that hydrological drought is likely to increase in warmer worlds. These cause more (less) people in East Asia, Central Europe, South Asia, and Southeast Asia (West Africa and Alaska/Northwest Canada) to be exposed to water shortage. Lastly, stabilizing warming at 1.5 °C instead of 2 °C would limit population impact in most of the regions, less effective in Alaska/Northwest Canada, Southeast Asia, and Amazon. Globally, this reduced population impact is ~117 million people.

1.5 °C warming↗
DOE OSTI2019

Estimation of Evapotranspiration of Amazon Rainforest Using the Maximum Entropy Production Method

Energy budget of Amazonian forests has a large influence on regional and global climate, but relevant data are scarce. A novel energy partition method based on the maximum entropy production (MEP) theory is applied to simulate evapotranspiration in Amazonia. Using site-level eddy flux data, the MEP method shows high skill at the hourly, daily, and monthly scales. Consistent performance under different levels of land surface dryness is revealed, hinting that drought signal is appropriately resolved. The site-level MEP-based estimates outperform the estimates of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer evapotranspiration product, which is commonly used for large-scale assessments. At the Amazon basin scale, the two series yield similar averages but exhibit spatial differences. The parameter parsimony and demonstrated skill of the MEP method make it an attractive approach for environments with diverse strategies of water flux control.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Evaluating soil moisture feedback on convective triggering: Roles of convective and land–model parameterizations

Feedbacks between soil moisture and convective precipitation are not well represented in current Earth system models, and can affect projections of drought and heavy-precipitation extremes. To explore the atmospheric and land-surface influences on the initiation (triggering) of daytime deep convection, single-column model experiments were performed using the NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM1.2), over the U.S. Southern Great Plains. The results indicate that the positive and negative feedback mechanisms found in earlier studies (using simplified boundary-layer models) are robust to large-scale forcing and interactions between boundary-layer turbulence, cloud dynamics, and radiation. However, systematic responses of convective triggering to soil moisture emerged only after switching from a convective available potential energy-based to a convective inhibition energy-based convective parameterization. This suggests that the choice of convective mass-flux closure largely determines the sensitivity of parameterized convective clouds to land-surface state. Errors in land-model parameterizations of evapotranspiration also affect the probability of deep convection, with vegetation (transpiration) playing an important role in linking soil moisture to surface energy partitioning and clouds. Parameterizations that permit the triggering feedback mechanism better predict the statistics of daytime shallow and deep convection, with respect to observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site in the Southern Great Plains. Here, the results illustrate how errors in the representation of evapotranspiration in land-surface models can propagate through the chain of coupled land-atmosphere processes to affect convective clouds.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗