We do not yet know how coastal fog and low cloud cover (FLCC) will change in the future, but we do know that the climate, ecosystems and agriculture of coastal California will be affected by changes in summertime FLCC. Variation in meteorological and radiative conditions near the ground (microclimates) is tightly coupled to plant ecophysiology and functioning, and a primary control on carbon and water fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Our research will characterize and quantify key contributors to the mechanisms, magnitude, and direction by which FLCC impacts surface microclimates and ecosystem function, both now and in the future.

The SFSU team will use a three-pronged approach to contribute to the advancement of FLCC science:

• Design and deploy a fog monitoring (FoMo) network linking this critical information on the climate near the ground with FLCC. 

• Investigate ecosystem response to FLCC at multiple spatial and temporal scales using eddy covariance surface flux data over a variety of ecosystems and instantaneous plant community-level CO2 and H2O fluxes.

• Develop an ecosystem model with advanced micrometeorological physics to investigate the mechanisms by which FLCC impacts plant physiology and to predict how different coastal ecosystems (forests, grasslands, croplands, etc.) may respond to changes in the FLCC regime.