Morphological, physiological and anatomical traits of plant functional types in temperate grasslands along a large-scale aridity gradient in northeastern China

Abstract. The Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM) is the interactive vegetation component in the Earth system model of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. CTEM models land–atmosphere exchange of CO2 through the response of carbon in living vegetation, and dead litter and soil pools, to changes in weather and climate at timescales of days to centuries. Version 1.0 of CTEM uses prescribed fractional coverage of plant functional types (PFTs) although, in reality, vegetation cover continually adapts to changes in climate, atmospheric composition and anthropogenic forcing. Changes in the spatial distribution of vegetation occur on timescales of years to centuries as vegetation distributions inherently have inertia. Here, we present version 2.0 of CTEM, which includes a representation of competition between PFTs based on a modified version of the Lotka–Volterra (L–V) predator–prey equations. Our approach is used to dynamically simulate the fractional coverage of CTEM's seven natural, non-crop PFTs, which are then compared with available observation-based estimates. Results from CTEM v. 2.0 show the model is able to represent the broad spatial distributions of its seven PFTs at the global scale. However, differences remain between modelled and observation-based fractional coverage of PFTs since representing the multitude of plant species globally, with just seven non-crop PFTs, only captures the large-scale climatic controls on PFT distributions. As expected, PFTs that exist in climate niches are difficult to represent either due to the coarse spatial resolution of the model, and the corresponding driving climate, or the limited number of PFTs used. We also simulate the fractional coverage of PFTs using unmodified L–V equations to illustrate its limitations. The geographic and zonal distributions of primary terrestrial carbon pools and fluxes from the versions of CTEM that use prescribed and dynamically simulated fractional coverage of PFTs compare reasonably well with each other and observation-based estimates. The parametrization of competition between PFTs in CTEM v. 2.0 based on the modified L–V equations behaves in a reasonably realistic manner and yields a tool with which to investigate the changes in spatial distribution of vegetation in response to future changes in climate.

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Plant functional types and their ecological responses to salinization in saline grasslands, Northeastern China

Photosynthetica ◽

10.1007/s11099-005-0006-1 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 42 (4) ◽

pp. 511-519 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

R.Z. Wang

Keyword(s):

Northeastern China ◽

Plant Functional Types ◽

Ecological Responses ◽

Functional Types

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The relative abundance of three plant functional types in temperate grasslands and shrublands of North and South America: effects of projected climate change

Journal of Biogeography ◽

10.1046/j.1365-2699.2002.00701.x ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 29 (7) ◽

pp. 875-888 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Howard E. Epstein ◽

Richard A. Gill ◽

Jose M. Paruelo ◽

William K. Lauenroth ◽

Gensuo J. Jia ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South America ◽

Relative Abundance ◽

Plant Functional Types ◽

Temperate Grasslands ◽

Functional Types ◽

North And South America ◽

North And South

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Plant functional types and climate along a precipitation gradient in temperate grasslands, north-east China and south-east Mongolia

Journal of Arid Environments ◽

10.1006/jare.2002.1063 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 53 (4) ◽

pp. 501-516 ◽

Cited By ~ 69

Author(s):

Jian Ni

Keyword(s):

Plant Functional Types ◽

East China ◽

Precipitation Gradient ◽

Temperate Grasslands ◽

North East ◽

Functional Types

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Global ecosystem-scale plant hydraulic traits retrieved using model–data fusion

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-25-2399-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (5) ◽

pp. 2399-2417

Author(s):

Yanlan Liu ◽

Nataniel M. Holtzman ◽

Alexandra G. Konings

Keyword(s):

Data Fusion ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Microwave Remote Sensing ◽

Plant Functional Types ◽

Drought Response ◽

Model Data ◽

Plant Hydraulics ◽

Functional Types ◽

Vegetation Water

Abstract. Droughts are expected to become more frequent and severe under climate change, increasing the need for accurate predictions of plant drought response. This response varies substantially, depending on plant properties that regulate water transport and storage within plants, i.e., plant hydraulic traits. It is, therefore, crucial to map plant hydraulic traits at a large scale to better assess drought impacts. Improved understanding of global variations in plant hydraulic traits is also needed for parameterizing the latest generation of land surface models, many of which explicitly simulate plant hydraulic processes for the first time. Here, we use a model–data fusion approach to evaluate the spatial pattern of plant hydraulic traits across the globe. This approach integrates a plant hydraulic model with data sets derived from microwave remote sensing that inform ecosystem-scale plant water regulation. In particular, we use both surface soil moisture and vegetation optical depth (VOD) derived from the X-band Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (EOS; collectively AMSR-E). VOD is proportional to vegetation water content and, therefore, closely related to leaf water potential. In addition, evapotranspiration (ET) from the Atmosphere–Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model is also used as a constraint to derive plant hydraulic traits. The derived traits are compared to independent data sources based on ground measurements. Using the K-means clustering method, we build six hydraulic functional types (HFTs) with distinct trait combinations – mathematically tractable alternatives to the common approach of assigning plant hydraulic values based on plant functional types. Using traits averaged by HFTs rather than by plant functional types (PFTs) improves VOD and ET estimation accuracies in the majority of areas across the globe. The use of HFTs and/or plant hydraulic traits derived from model–data fusion in this study will contribute to improved parameterization of plant hydraulics in large-scale models and the prediction of ecosystem drought response.

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Holocene vegetation transitions and their climatic drivers in MPI-ESM1.2

10.5194/cp-2021-51 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anne Dallmeyer ◽

Martin Claussen ◽

Stephan J. Lorenz ◽

Michael Sigl ◽

Matthew Toohey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern Hemisphere ◽

Large Scale ◽

Vegetation Change ◽

Net Primary Production ◽

Plant Functional Types ◽

Holocene Climate ◽

The Holocene ◽

Functional Types ◽

Northern Latitudes ◽

Rapid Changes

Abstract. We present a transient simulation of global vegetation and climate patterns of the mid and late Holocene using the MPI-ESM (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Earth System Model) at T63 resolution. The simulated vegetation trend is discussed in the context of the simulated Holocene climate change. Our model captures the main trends found in reconstructions. Most prominent are the southward retreat of the northern treeline that is combined with the strong decrease of forest in the high northern latitudes during the Holocene and the vast increase of the Saharan desert, embedded in a general decrease in precipitation and vegetation in the northern hemispheric monsoon margin regions. The southern hemisphere experiences weaker changes in total vegetation cover during the last 8000 years. However, the monsoon-related increase in precipitation and the insolation-induced cooling of the winter climate lead to shifts in the vegetation composition, mainly between the woody plant functional types (PFTs). The large-scale global patterns of vegetation almost linearly follow the subtle, approximately linear, orbital forcing. In some regions, however, non-linear, more rapid changes in vegetation are found in the simulation. The most striking region is the Sahel-Sahara domain with rapid vegetation transitions to a rather desertic state, despite a gradual insolation forcing. Rapid shifts in the simulated vegetation also occur in the high northern latitudes, in South Asia and in the monsoon margins of the southern hemisphere. These rapid changes are mainly triggered by changes in the winter temperatures, which go into, or move out of, the bioclimatic tolerance range of individual PFTs (Plant Functional Types). The dynamics of the transitions are determined by dynamics of the Net Primary Production (NPP) and the competition between PFTs. These changes mainly occur on timescales of centuries. More rapid changes in PFTs that occur within a few decades are mainly associated with the time scales of mortality and the bioclimatic thresholds implicit in the dynamic vegetation model, which have to be interpreted with caution. Most of the simulated Holocene vegetation changes outside the high northern latitudes are associated with modifications in the intensity of the global summer monsoon dynamics that also affect the circulation in the extra tropics via teleconnections. Based on our simulations, we thus identify the global monsoons as the key player in the Holocene climate and vegetation change.

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Competition between plant functional types in the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM) v. 2.0

Geoscientific Model Development Discussions ◽

10.5194/gmdd-8-4851-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 (6) ◽

pp. 4851-4948 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J. R. Melton ◽

V. K. Arora

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Large Scale ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽

Ecosystem Model ◽

Plant Functional Types ◽

Atmospheric Composition ◽

Climate Modelling ◽

Fractional Coverage ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystem Model ◽

Functional Types

Abstract. The Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM) is the interactive vegetation component in the Earth system model of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. CTEM models land–atmosphere exchange of CO2 through the response of carbon in living vegetation, and dead litter and soil pools, to changes in weather and climate at timescales of days to centuries. Version 1.0 of CTEM uses prescribed fractional coverage of plant functional types (PFTs) although, in reality, vegetation cover continually adapts to changes in climate, atmospheric composition, and anthropogenic forcing. Changes in the spatial distribution of vegetation occur on timescales of years to centuries as vegetation distributions inherently have inertia. Here, we present version 2.0 of CTEM which includes a representation of competition between PFTs based on a modified version of the Lotka–Volterra (L–V) predator–prey equations. Our approach is used to dynamically simulate the fractional coverage of CTEM's seven natural, non-crop PFTs which are then compared with available observation-based estimates. Results from CTEM v. 2.0 show the model is able to represent the broad spatial distributions of its seven PFTs at the global scale. However, differences remain between modelled and observation-based fractional coverages of PFTs since representing the multitude of plant species globally, with just seven non-crop PFTs, only captures the large scale climatic controls on PFT distributions. As expected, PFTs that exist in climate niches are difficult to represent either due to the coarse spatial resolution of the model, and the corresponding driving climate, or the limited number of PFTs used. We also simulate the fractional coverages of PFTs using unmodified L–V equations to illustrate its limitations. The geographic and zonal distributions of primary terrestrial carbon pools and fluxes from the versions of CTEM that use prescribed and dynamically simulated fractional coverage of PFTs compare reasonably well with each other and observation-based estimates. The parametrization of competition between PFTs in CTEM v. 2.0 based on the modified L–V equations behaves in a reasonably realistic manner and yields a tool with which to investigate the changes in spatial distribution of vegetation in response to future changes in climate.

Download Full-text