Description of a Land-Surface Scheme for Use in Vegetation Models

Martin, P. (1989). Description of a Land-Surface Scheme for Use in Vegetation Models. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-89-097

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Abstract

At the Earth's surface, two phenomena take place. Energy, water, and momentum are exchanged between the ground and the vegetation, and the atmosphere, and water is redistributed horizontally over the landscape and vertically in the soil. The exchanges of energy, water, and momentum result from specific processes, which themselves are controlled by particular surface parameters. The optical properties of the surface control the surface energy balance, which determines the energy available for the release of sensible and latent heat; the surface temperature also affects the sensible and the latent heat fluxes and modulates infrared cooling; the vegetation to a large extent determines the partitioning between the sensible and the latent heat; and, the roughness controls the transfer of momentum between the surface and the atmosphere. Conversely, the redistribution of water over the landscape is determined by topography, vegetation cover, and the physical characteristics of the soil. These processes consequently determine the quantity of water available for plant growth and cooling. Vegetation models, and in particular those with high spatial resolution, such as gap-phase forest dynamics models, should include an explicit treatment of the processes described above if they are at any point going to be used for studies of the effects of climatic changes. This paper describes a model where vegetation/atmosphere interactions are treated with greater physically and biological realism and where feedbacks are made explicit.

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