Ozone dry deposition through plant stomata:multi-model comparison with flux observations and the role of water stress as part of AQMEII4 Activity 2

A substantial portion of tropospheric O3 dry deposition occurs after diffusion of O3 through plant stomata. Simulating stomatal uptake of O3 in 3D atmospheric chemistry models is important in the face of increasing drought-induced declines in stomatal conductance and enhanced ambient O3. Here, we present a comparison of the stomatal component of O3 dry deposition (egs) from chemical transport models and estimates of egs from observed CO2, latent heat, and O3 flux. The dry deposition schemes were configured as single-point models forced with data collected at flux towers. We conducted sensitivity analyses to study the impact of model parameters that control stomatal moisture stress on modeled egs. Examining six sites around the Northern Hemisphere, we find that the seasonality of observed flux-based egs agrees with the seasonality of simulated egs at times during the growing season, with disagreements occurring during the later part of the growing season at some sites. We find that modeled water stress effects are too strong in a temperate–boreal transition forest. Some single-point models overestimate summertime egs in a seasonally water-limited Mediterranean shrubland. At all sites examined, modeled egs was sensitive to parameters that control the vapor pressure deficit stress. At specific sites that experienced substantial declines in soil moisture, the simulation of egs was highly sensitive to parameters that control the soil moisture stress. The findings demonstrate the challenges in accurately representing the effects of moisture stress on the stomatal sink of O3 during observed increases in dryness due to ecosystem-specific plant–resource interactions.