skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: What Limits Predictive Certainty of Long-Term Carbon Uptake?

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JG004504· OSTI ID:1482088
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]
  1. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
  2. Boston Univ., Boston, MA (United States). Dept. of Earth and Environment
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Environmental and Climate Sciences Dept.
  4. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

Terrestrial biosphere models can help identify physical processes that control carbon dynamics, including land-atmosphere CO2 fluxes, and have the potential to project the terrestrial ecosystem response to changing climate. It is important to identify ecosystem processes most responsible for model predictive uncertainty and design improved model representation and observational system studies to reduce that uncertainty. Here we identified model parameters that contribute the most uncertainty to long-term (~100 years) projections of net ecosystem exchange, net primary production, and aboveground biomass within a mechanistic terrestrial biosphere model (Ecosystem Demography, version 2.1) ED2. An uncertainty analysis identified parameters that represent the quantum efficiency of light to photosynthetic conversion, leaf respiration and soil-plant water transfer as the highest contributors to model uncertainty regardless of time frame (annual, decadal, and centennial) and output (e.g., net ecosystem exchange, net primary production, aboveground biomass). Contrary to expectations, the contribution of successional processes related to reproduction, competition, and mortality did not increase as the time scale increased. These findings suggest that uncertainty in the parameters governing short-term ecosystem processes remains the most significant bottleneck to reducing predictive uncertainty. Key actions to reduce parameter uncertainty include more leaf-level trait measurements across multiple sites for quantum efficiency and leaf respiration rate. Further, the empirical representation of soil-plant water transfer should be replaced with a mechanistic, hydraulic representation of water flow, which can be constrained with direct measurements. This analysis focused on aboveground ecosystem processes. The impact of belowground carbon cycling, initial conditions, and meteorological forcing should be addressed in future studies.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1482088
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1488674
Report Number(s):
BNL-209437-2018-JAAM
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences, Vol. 123, Issue 12; ISSN 2169-8953
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 20 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (74)

Tree mortality in the eastern and central United States: patterns and drivers journal July 2011
Products, requirements and efficiency of biosynthesis a quantitative approach journal June 1974
Sensitivity Anaysis as an Ingredient of Modeling journal November 2000
Pathogens and insect herbivores drive rainforest plant diversity and composition journal January 2014
Toward a physically plausible upper bound of sea-level rise projections journal October 2012
Inference from Iterative Simulation Using Multiple Sequences journal November 1992
Regenerating temperate forests under elevated CO2 and nitrogen deposition: comparing biochemical and stomatal limitation of photosynthesis journal November 2001
Diversity in plant hydraulic traits explains seasonal and inter-annual variations of vegetation dynamics in seasonally dry tropical forests journal May 2016
Computer and remote‐sensing infrastructure to enhance large‐scale testing of individual‐based forest models journal November 2015
A quantitative assessment of a terrestrial biosphere model's data needs across North American biomes: PEcAn/ED model-data uncertainty analysis journal March 2014
Relative information contributions of model vs. data to short- and long-term forecasts of forest carbon dynamics journal July 2011
Biometric and eddy-covariance based estimates of annual carbon storage in five eastern North American deciduous forests journal December 2002
Sensitivity analysis of a process-based ecosystem model: Pinpointing parameterization and structural issues: GLOBAL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF LPJ-GUESS journal April 2013
The full path of Janzen-Connell effects: genetic tracking of seeds to adult plant recruitment: NEWS AND VIEWS: PERSPECTIVE journal September 2011
Evaluation of continental carbon cycle simulations with North American flux tower observations journal November 2013
Partitioning solar radiation into direct and diffuse, visible and near-infrared components journal April 1985
Evidence from Individual Inference for High-Dimensional Coexistence: Long-Term Experiments on Recruitment Response journal February 2012
Atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory: 2. Analysis of the NOAA GMCC data, 1974-1985 journal June 1989
Dynamics in Late-Successional Hemlock–Hardwood Forests over Three Decades journal January 2000
Causes of interannual variability in ecosystem–atmosphere CO2 exchange in a northern Wisconsin forest using a Bayesian model calibration journal February 2008
Soil carbon fluxes and stocks in a Great Lakes forest chronosequence journal January 2009
Coupled Atmosphere–Biophysics–Hydrology Models for Environmental Modeling journal June 2000
Comparing net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide between an old-growth and mature forest in the upper Midwest, USA journal January 2005
A model-data intercomparison of CO 2 exchange across North America: Results from the North American Carbon Program site synthesis journal January 2010
Terrestrial biosphere model performance for inter-annual variability of land-atmosphere CO2 exchange journal March 2012
Linking big models to big data: efficient ecosystem model calibration through Bayesian model emulation journal January 2018
Variation in measured values of photosynthetic quantum yield in ecophysiological studies journal June 2001
Relative growth rate in relation to physiological and morphological traits for northern hardwood tree seedlings: species, light environment and ontogenetic considerations journal November 1993
Aboveground production efficiency and canopy nutrient contents of mixed-hardwood forest communities along a moisture gradient in the central United States journal December 1996
Translating Probability Density Functions: From R to BUGS and Back Again journal January 2013
What plant hydraulics can tell us about responses to climate-change droughts journal March 2015
Attributing uncertainties in simulated biospheric carbon fluxes to different error sources: ANALYZING ERRORS IN BIOSPHERIC C MODELS journal June 2011
A Model Predicting Stomatal Conductance and its Contribution to the Control of Photosynthesis under Different Environmental Conditions book January 1987
Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA journal February 2021
Constraints on radiative forcing and future climate change from observations and climate model ensembles journal April 2002
Broadscale variability in tree data of the historical Public Land Survey and its consequences for ecological studies journal May 2011
Observing terrestrial ecosystems and the carbon cycle from space journal February 2015
Vegetation demographics in Earth System Models: A review of progress and priorities journal October 2017
A critical appraisal of a combined stomatal-photosynthesis model for C3 plants journal April 1995
A roadmap for improving the representation of photosynthesis in Earth system models journal November 2016
Global Carbon Budget 2017 journal January 2018
Details That Matter: The Spatial Distribution of Individual Trees Maintains Forest Ecosystem Function journal December 1995
Global Carbon Budget 2017 text January 2018
Linear Analysis of soil Decomposition: Insights from the Century Model journal May 1998
Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought journal November 2012
Using Light-Use and Production Efficiency Models to Predict Photosynthesis and Net Carbon Exchange During Forest Canopy Disturbance journal November 2007
Uncertainties in CMIP5 Climate Projections due to Carbon Cycle Feedbacks journal January 2014
The correlations and sequence of plant stomatal, hydraulic, and wilting responses to drought journal November 2016
Does the leaf economic spectrum hold within plant functional types? A Bayesian multivariate trait meta‐analysis journal January 2020
Constraints on radiative forcing and future climate change from observations and climate model ensembles text January 2002
On improving the communication between models and data: Communication between models and data journal January 2013
Carbon–Concentration and Carbon–Climate Feedbacks in CMIP5 Earth System Models journal August 2013
Predicting ecosystem dynamics at regional scales: an evaluation of a terrestrial biosphere model for the forests of northeastern North America journal January 2012
Predicting yields of short-rotation hybrid poplar ( Populus spp.) for the United States through model–data synthesis journal June 2013
A general ecophysiological framework for modelling the impact of pests and pathogens on forest ecosystems. journal August 2014
Mathematical and Computational Challenges in Population Biology and Ecosystems Science journal January 1997
A global prognostic scheme of leaf onset using satellite data journal October 2000
An efficient method for global parameter sensitivity analysis and its applications to the Australian community land surface model (CABLE) journal December 2013
Dimensionality Reduction for Complex Models via Bayesian Compressive Sensing journal January 2014
Nonstructural Carbon in Woody Plants journal April 2014
A Method for Scaling Vegetation Dynamics: the Ecosystem Demography Model (ed) journal November 2001
Herbivores and the Number of Tree Species in Tropical Forests journal November 1970
Facilitating feedbacks between field measurements and ecosystem models journal May 2013
Climate, soil organic layer, and nitrogen jointly drive forest development after fire in the North American boreal zone: CLIMATE AND SOIL DRIVE BOREAL CARBON journal August 2016
Estimating parameters of a forest ecosystem C model with measurements of stocks and fluxes as joint constraints journal April 2010
Estimating diurnal to annual ecosystem parameters by synthesis of a carbon flux model with eddy covariance net ecosystem exchange observations journal February 2005
Prediction in ecology: a first-principles framework journal August 2017
A biochemical model of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in leaves of C3 species journal June 1980
Mechanistic scaling of ecosystem function and dynamics in space and time: Ecosystem Demography model version 2 journal January 2009
A Method for Scaling Vegetation Dynamics: The Ecosystem Demography Model (ED) journal November 2001
The Impact of Parametric Uncertainties on Biogeochemistry in the E3SM Land Model journal February 2018
Carbon exchange and venting anomalies in an upland deciduous forest in northern Wisconsin, USA journal November 2004
Dynamics of C, N, P and S in grassland soils: a model journal February 1988
Parameter and prediction uncertainty in an optimized terrestrial carbon cycle model: Effects of constraining variables and data record length journal January 2011

Cited By (3)