Water-vegetation interactions

TOC

Description

LPJmL simulates the dynamic mutual feedbacks between freshwater cycling in and above the earth surface and terrestrial vegetation dynamics (both natural vegetation, i.e. PFTs, and agricultural vegetation, i.e. CFTs).

Details

The major water-vegetation links represented in LPJmL are as follows:
(i) the coupling of plant transpiration and carbon uptake from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis;
(ii) the down-regulation of photosynthesis, plant growth and productivity in response to soil water limitation (relative to atmospheric moisture demand), in case actual canopy conductance is below potential canopy conductance (in the demand function that describes transpiration);
(iii) the effect of changes in vegetation type, distribution, phenology and production on evapotranspiration (and its individual components), runoff and soil moisture; (iv) the anthropogenic stimulation of crop growth through irrigation with water taken from rivers, dams, lakes and assumed renewable groundwater.
Basic features of (i) and (ii) are described by Haxeltine and Prentice (1996), Sitch et al. (2003) and Gerten et al. (2007); details on (iii) are provided by Gerten et al. (2004); for a description of (iv) see Rost et al. (2008).

Developers

Stephen Sitch for the original implementation following Haxeltine and Prentice; updates in 2004 by Dieter Gerten and Sibyll Schaphoff; adjustment for crop functional types in 2007/2008 by Alberte Bondeau and Stefanie Rost

See Also

Plant functional types, Crop functional types, River routing, Soilwater, Photosynthesis, CO2 fertilization, water balance

References

Bondeau et al. 2007, Global Change Biol.
Gerten et al. 2004, J Hydrol.
Gerten et al. 2007, Clim. Change
Haxeltine and Prentice 1996, Global Biogeochem. Cycl.
Rost et al. 2008, Water Resour. Res.
Sitch et al. 2003, Global Change Biol.