Grassland/atmosphere response to changing climate: Coupling regional and local scales

Technical Report · Tue Jul 30 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5454461

Coughenour, M B; Kittel, T; Pielkel, R A; Parton, W; Eastman, J; Cram, J

This study is an interdisciplinary research designed to increase our understanding of the ecological impacts of changes in climate and atmospheric chemistry projected to occur over the next 50 to 100 years due to globally increasing levels of CO{sub 2} and other greenhouse gases. The project study area is the North American Central Grasslands. The objectives are (1) to develop multiscaled modeling systems linking extant state-of-the-art models from the ecological and atmospheric sciences with different spatial and temporal resolutions and (2) to evaluate the response of grassland ecosystems to atmospheric change at regional and site scales. Responses are to be evaluated in terms of ecosystem function and potential biospheric impacts to climate. We report progress since the last progress report (July 1990), covering the last half of Year 1 and the first 7 months of Year 2. We have (1) refined the high resolution GRASS model, (2) completed parameterization of the GRASS model for three sites, (3) constructed a multi-scaled modeling user interface, (4) conducted preliminary modeling experiments to filter from fine to coarse scale models, (5) implemented a computer-based synoptic classification scheme ( synoptic classification processor'), a key step in the scale transition of GCM climate change scenarios, and (6) evaluated scale issues associated with linking models. We also used coarse and fine resolution ecosystem models, in a manually linked mode, to simulate ecosystem response to climate and CO{sub 2} change. 48 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-90ER60932
• OSTI ID: 5454461
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/60932-T1; ON: DE91016906
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110
540210* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CLIMATE MODELS
CLIMATES
COMPUTER CODES
DOCUMENT TYPES
ECOSYSTEMS
G CODES
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
GROWTH
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LEAVES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METEOROLOGY
NUTRIENTS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
PHYSIOLOGY
PLANT GROWTH
PLANTS
PROGRESS REPORT
RANGELANDS
ROOTS
SYNTHESIS
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
WATER