Evaporation and the subcanopy energy environment in a flooded forest

The combination of tree canopy cover and a free water surface makes the subcanopy environment of flooded forested wetlands unlike other aquatic or terrestrial systems. Subcanopy vapour fluxes and energy budgets represent key controls on water level and understorey climate but are not well understood. In a permanently flooded forest in south-eastern Louisiana, USA, an energy balance approach was used to address (a) whether evaporation from floodwater under a forest canopy is solely energy limited and (b) how energy availability was modulated by radiation and changes in floodwater heat storage. A 5-month continuous measurement period (June-November) was used to sample across seasonal changes in canopy activity and temperature regimes. Over this period, the subcanopy airspace was humid, maintaining saturation vapour pressure for 28% of the total record. High humidity coupled with the thermal inertia of surface water altered both seasonal and diel energy exchanges, including atypical phenomena such as frequent day-time vapour pressure gradients towards the water surface. Throughout the study period, nearly all available energy was partitioned to evaporation, with minimal sensible heat exchange. Monthly mean evaporation ranged from 0.7 to 1.7 mm/day, peaking in fall when canopy senescence allowed greater radiation transmission; contemporaneous seasonal temperature shifts and a net release of stored heat from the surface water resulted in energy availability exceeding net radiation by 30% in October and November. Relatively stable energy partitioning matches Priestley-Taylor assumptions for a general model of evaporation in this ecosystem.