The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors 2019 (CHEESEHEAD19) is an ongoing National Science Foundation project based on an intensive field campaign that occurred from June-October 2019. The purpose of the study is to examine how the atmospheric boundary layer responds to spatial heterogeneity in surface energy fluxes. One of the main objectives is to test whether lack of energy balance closure measured by eddy covariance (EC) towers is related to mesoscale atmospheric processes. Finally, the project evaluates data-driven methods for scaling surface energy fluxes, with the aim to improve model-data comparison and integration. To address these questions, an extensive suite of ground, tower, profiling, and airborne instrumentation was deployed over a 10×10 km domain of a heterogeneous forest ecosystem in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin USA, centered on the existing Park Falls 447-m tower that anchors an Ameriflux/NOAA supersite (US-PFa / WLEF). The project deployed one of the world’s highest-density networks of above-canopy EC measurements of surface energy fluxes. This tower EC network was coupled with spatial measurements of EC fluxes from aircraft, maps of leaf and canopy properties derived from airborne spectroscopy, ground-based measurements of plant productivity, phenology, and physiology, and atmospheric profiles of wind, water vapor, and temperature using radar, sodar, lidar, microwave radiometers, infrared interferometers, and radiosondes. These observations are being used with large eddy simulation and scaling experiments to better understand sub-mesoscale processes and improve formulations of sub-grid scale processes in numerical weather and climate models.

Background and Aims: At the population level, genetic diversity is a key determinant of a tree species’ capacity to cope with stress. However, little is known about the relative importance of the different components of genetic diversity for tree stress responses. We compared how two sources of genetic diversity, genotype and cytotype (i.e. differences in ploidy levels) influence growth, phytochemical, and physiological traits of Populus tremuloides in the presence and absence of environmental stress.Methods: In a series of field studies, we first assessed variation in traits across diploid and triploid aspen genotypes from Utah and Wisconsin under nonstressed conditions. In two follow-up experiments, we exposed diploid and triploid aspen genotypes from Wisconsin to individual and interactive drought stress and defoliation treatments and quantified trait variations under stress.Key Results: We found that 1) tree growth and associated traits did not differ significantly between ploidy levels under nonstressed conditions. Instead, variation in tree growth and most other traits was driven by genotypic and population differences. 2) Genotypic differences were critical for explaining variation of most of functional traits and their responses to stress. 3) Ploidy level played a subtle role in shaping traits and trait stress responses, as its influence was typically obscured by genotypic differences. 4) As an exception to the third conclusion, we showed that triploid trees expressed 17% higher foliar defense (tremulacin) levels, 11% higher photosynthesis levels, and 23% higher rubisco activity under well-watered conditions. Moreover, triploid trees displayed greater drought resilience than diploids as they produced 35% more new tissue than diploids when recovering from drought stress Conclusion: Although ploidy level can strongly influence the ecology of tree species, those effects may be relatively small in contrast to the effects of genotypic variation in highly diverse species.