Projecting the vegetation response to climatic change in the North American Central Grasslands Region

Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States)

OSTI ID:6142941

Lenihan, J M; Neilson, R P ^[1]

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1. Environmental Research Lab., Corvallis, OR (United States)

An interdisciplinary modeling effort is underway in which high-resolution climate change projections will drive the Mapped Atmosphere-Plant-Soil System (MAPSS) to simulate vegetation change in the Central Grasslands Region. MAPSS calculates a complete site water balance and solves for the leaf area (LAI) of both woody and grass lifeforms in full competition for both light and water. Fire is a necessary constraint on simulated shrub LAI throughout much of the grasslands region, and incorporation of weather variability is critical for obtaining accurate tree/grass LAI ratios in the Prairie Peninsula. Initial estimates of the potential impact of climatic change include significant changes in both lifeform LAI and the distribution of subformation vegetation types, but the magnitude and even the direction of change varies with the climate scenario and with assumptions concerning wind speed and plant water-use efficiency.

• OSTI ID: 6142941
• Report Number(s): CONF-930798-; CODEN: BECLAG
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States), Vol. 74:2; Conference: 78. annual Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting, Madison, WI (United States), 31 Jul - 4 Aug 1993; ISSN 0012-9623
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION
FORECASTING
CLIMATIC CHANGE
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
POPULATION DYNAMICS
FIRES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTH AMERICA
RANGELANDS
WATER USE
WEATHER
ECOSYSTEMS
560400* - Other Environmental Pollutant Effects