In the vertical heat flux budget, gradient production and pressure covariance are the main production and destruction of heat flux terms respectively and the gradient production is the largest source term producing an upward heat flux- in the crown layer and a downward heat flux in the lower canopy. Unlike its corresponding terms in the TKE and Reynolds stress budgets, this term becomes large and negative in the lower canopy. The importance of the turbulent transport term increases substantially with increasing thermal instability. The magnitude of the pressure covariance, gradient production. In these regions, the ejections contribution increases with unstable conditions while the sweeps contribution to the Reynolds stress decreases.
Results are similar although more subdued in the case of the heat flux.
For both momentum and heat flux, in the lower canopy, thermal stability significantly alters the structure of the flow mostly by shifting the predominance of the inward interaction quadrant in neutral conditions to the outward interaction quadrant in unstable conditions.