Disturbance and Vegetation Dynamics in Earth System Models: Workshop Report
- Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington DC (United States). Office of Science. Office of Biological and Environmental Research
- Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
This report summarizes discussion and outcomes from the March 2018 workshop, Disturbance and Vegetation Dynamics in Earth System Models, sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) within the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The goals of this workshop, held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, were to (1) identify key uncertainties in current dynamic vegetation models limiting the ability to adequately represent vegetation in Earth System Models (ESMs) and (2) identify and prioritize research directions that can improve models, including forest structural change and feedbacks and responses to disturbance. Failure to capture disturbance dynamics and feedbacks limits the utility of ESMs for predictive understanding and application to societally important problems. This workshop considered (a) dynamic processes that significantly affect terrestrial ecosystems and the coupled Earth system and (b) the data constraints and modeling challenges important for future progress. There were three dominant workshop conclusions: vegetation changes, including disturbance- driven changes, are affecting climate and natural resources; these impacts are expected to increase in the future; and, yet, current models have insufficient data and process representations to adequately predict these changes.
- Research Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC) (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI ID:
- 1616531
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/SC-0196
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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