Land–atmosphere exchange is mediated by turbulent fluxes that can be quantified with eddy-covariance (EC) measurements. EC has been widely used to measure ecosystem-scale vertical exchange between atmosphere and vegetation, and to test and refine atmospheric turbulence theories, thereby improving the representation of turbulent fluxes in land surface models. Traditionally, research has focused on idealized, homogeneous and fla...

The exchange of momentum, heat and trace gases between atmosphere and surface is mainly controlled by turbulent fluxes. Turbulent mixing is usually parametrized using Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), which was derived for steady turbulence over homogeneous and flat surfaces, but is nevertheless routinely applied to unsteady turbulence over non-homogeneous surfaces. We study four years of eddy-covariance measurements at...

Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) provide a state‐of‐the‐art process‐based approach to study the complex interplay between vegetation and its physical environment. For example, they help to predict how terrestrial plants interact with climate, soils, disturbance and competition for resources. We argue that there is untapped potential for the use of DGVMs in ecological and ecophysiological research. One fundamental barri...

A one-point measurement of net radiation is typically not representative of radiative energy available for the turbulent exchange of latent and sensible heat at eddy-covariance sites with heterogeneous surface cover. We propose a methodology for providing surface-cover-corrected net radiation matching the footprint of turbulent fluxes at a heterogenous eddy-covariance site. This is demonstrated at a complex sub-alpine site in...