On the basis of information from the project ＂Land-surface Processes and their Experimental Study on the Chinese Loess Plateau＂, we analyzed differences in land-surface water and heat processes during the main dry and wet periods of the semiarid grassland growing season in Yuzhong County, as well as the influences of these environmental factors. Studies have shown that there are significant differences in changes of land-surface temperature and humidity during dry and wet periods. Daily average normalized temperature has an overall vertical distribution of ＂forward tilting＂ and ＂backward tilting＂ during dry and wet periods, respectively. During the dry period, shallow soil above 20-cm depth is the active temperature layer. The heat transfer rate in soil is obviously different during dry and wet periods. During the dry period, the ratio of sensible heat flux to net radiation （H/Rn） and the value of latent heat flux to net radiation （LE/Rn） have a linear relationship with 5-cm soil temperature; during the wet period, these have a nonlinear relationship with 5-cm soil temperature, and soil temperature of 16℃ is the critical temperature for changes in the land-surface water and heat exchange trend on a daily scale. During the dry period, H/Rn and LE/Rn have a linear relationship with soil water content. During the wet period, these have a nonlinear relationship with 5-cm soil water content, and 0.21 m^3 m^-3 is the critical point for changes in the land-surface water and heat exchange trend at daily scale. During the dry period, for vapor pressure deficit less than 0.7 kPa, H/Rn rises with increased vapor pressure deficit, whereas LEIRn decreases with that increase. When that deficit is greater than 0.7 kPa, both H/Rn and LE/Rn tend to be constant. During the wet period, H/Rn increases with the vapor pressure deficit, whereas LE/Rn decreases. The above characteristics directly reflect the effect of differences in land-surface environmental factors during land-surface water and heat exchange proc
It has previously been shown that aerodynamic roughness length changes significantly along with near- surface atmospheric thermodynamic state; however, at present, this phenomenon remains poorly understood, and very little research concerning this topic has been conducted. In this paper, by using the data of different underlying surfaces provided by the Experimental Co-observation and Integral Research in Semi-arid and Arid Regions over North China, aerodynamic roughness length （z0） values in stable, neutral, and unstable atmospheric stratifications are compared with one another, and the relationship between z0 and atmospheric thermodynamic stability （（） is analyzed. It is found that z0 shows great differences among the stable, neutral, and unstable atmospheric thermodynamic states, with the difference in z0 values between the fully thermodynamic stable condition and the neutral condition reaching 60% of the mean z0. F^trthermore, for the wind speed range in which the wind data are less sensitive to z0, the surface z0 changes more significantly with （, and is highly correlated with both the Monin-Obukhov stability （4o） and the overall Richardson number （Rib）, with both of their correlation coefficients greater than 0.71 and 0.47 in the stable and unstable atmospheric stratification, respectively. The empirical relation fitted with the experimental observations is quite consistent with the Zilitinkevich theoretical relation in the stable atmosphere, but the two are quite distinct and even show opposite variation tendencies in the unstable atmosphere. In application, however, verification of the empirical fitted relations by using the experimental data finds that the fitted relation is slightly more applicable than the Zilitinkevich theoretical relation in stable atmospheric stratification, but it is much more suitable than the Zilitinkevich relation in unstable atmospheric stratification.
