Tharandt
Currently the TU Dresden (Chair of Meteorology) operates 6 monitoring sites to measure energy, water and greenhouse gas exchanges of different land uses including 4 sites (Tharandt, Grillenburg, Klingenberg, Hetzdorf) within the framework of the ICOS-D ecosystem component (TU Dresden or Tharandt cluster).
The Anchor Station Tharandt (50°57’49”N, 13°34’01”E, 380 m a.s.l.) is located in an old spruce stand southwest of Dresden. At this site amongst others the CO2 exchange and the evapotranspiration are continuously monitored since 1996 (longest record in Germany). The spruce stand is 129 years old (2016) and shows a mean canopy height of 30 m. Within the footprint of the flux measurements there are 87% coniferous forest (72% spruce) and 13% deciduous forest (10% larch). The forest is managed since 1811 (planting, thinning and liming). There is an ongoing forest conversion from a spruce dominated to a mixed stand using thinnings and plantings (beech, fir). Recent thinnings occurred 2002 (export of 60 m3 ha-1), 2011 and 2016 (53 m3 ha-1 each).
The EC measurement setup consists of the two ultrasonic anemometers GILL R3-50 and GILL HS-50 (Gill Instruments, Lymington, UK) and closed/enclosed gas analyzers LI-7000 and LI-7200 (LiCor Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA) providing a measurement frequency of 25 Hz. The site is also equipped with measurements of radiation components, air temperature and humidity, precipitation as well as soil and biomass observations.
The long-term mean net CO2 sink (net ecosystem productivity) is 410 gC m-2 a-1 reduced to 270 gC m-2 a-1 including wood export (net biome productivity). The ratio of net ecosystem productivity and gross primary production is 0.29. The (corrected) annual evapotranspiration rate is between 390 mm (2003) and 570 mm (2006) whereas the (corrected) precipitation is from 580 mm a-1 (2003) to 1290 mm a-1 (2010). So, the mean evaporative fraction is 49% of precipitation and 57% of available energy, respectively.
PI: Prof. Dr. Christian Bernhofer, TU Dresden, Chair of Meteorology
Site manager: Dr. Thomas Grünwald, TU Dresden, Chair of Meteorology
Current measurement results available at