Quantifying the complexity in mapping energy inputs and hydrologic state variables into land‐surface fluxes

This study explores the complexity (or disorder) in mapping energy ( R n ) forcing to land surface fluxes of sensible heat ( H s ), water vapor ( LE ), and carbon dioxide (or net ecosystem exchange, NEE ) for different soil water states (θ). Specifically, we ask, does the vegetation act to increase or dissipate statistical entropy injected from R n ? We address this question using novel scalar complexity measures applied to a long‐term time series record of R n , θ, H s , LE , and NEE collected over a uniform pine forest. This analysis is the first to demonstrate that vegetation dissipates scalar flux entropy injected through R n . We also find that the entropy or disorder in scalar fluxes increases with increasing R n and that the complexity in mapping R n to scalar fluxes is reduced with increasing θ.