AFM Special Issue Summary - Integrating Surface Flux with Boundary Layer Measurements

•Research on land-atmosphere interactions covers a large breadth of disciplines.•Silos between research areas are reinforced by increasingly complex approaches.•This issue integrates research across the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum.•New funding opportunities are needed to support this trans-disciplinary work.•Coordinated networks are expensive but will facilitate transformational knowledge. To help bridge science topics related to land-atmosphere interactions, we organized a virtual special issue in this journal (Agricultural and Forest Meteorology [AFM]) entitled, “Land-Atmosphere Interactions: Integrating Surface Flux with Boundary Layer Measurements.” The motivation for the special issue was driven by existing disciplinary barriers between research areas that all address land-atmosphere interactions. In particular, it addressed research silos between those who study features of the land surface, surface fluxes (including water, energy, and trace gases), atmospheric boundary layer growth and thermodynamics, and atmospheric composition and aerosols. The special issue sought to bring these communities together to integrate multiple observations across the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum with the aim of 1) improving broader understanding of land-atmosphere interactions, feedbacks, and coupling, 2) fostering new collaborations between atmospheric and surface flux scientists, and 3) identifying new paths for integrative research. Here, we provide an overview and synthesis of the special issue.