An individual-based forest ecosystems model for projecting forest response to nutrient cycling and climate changes

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6411391

Post, W M; Pastor, J

Forest ecosystem control over nutrient cycling and response to climate change is explored using a model that simulates the annual establishment, growth, and death of individual trees. The aboveground populations dynamics are extended into the soil environment by tracking changes in carbon and nitrogen content of annual cohorts of litter. In this model, carbon and nitrogen cycles form a positive feedback loop because nitrogen cycling partially limits production and also depends on the amount and chemistry of carbon compounds produced. Temperature and soil water availability are constraints to population dynamics directly and through their feedbacks with soil nitrogen availability and light extinction. Embedding ecosystem feedbacks within a geological and climatological framework, we can expand our view of ecosystems from the stand level to the landscape and regional level. Our model, incorporating these feedbacks and constraints, can predict regional and global ecosystems responses to perturbations such as climate change. Species composition and population dynamics can have a large impact on forest productivity. Simulations of a boreal forest indicate that spruce declines observed for many North American forests can be caused by biotically induced changes in nutrient availability that result from an inverse relationship between litter quality and shade-tolerance of the dominant species. 44 refs., 4 figs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Minnesota Univ., Duluth (USA). Natural Resources Research Inst.
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6411391
• Report Number(s): CONF-8811173-1; ON: DE89007212
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
CARBON CYCLE
CLIMATE MODELS
CLIMATES
ECOSYSTEMS
EVALUATION
FORECASTING
FOREST LITTER
FORESTS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MINERAL CYCLING
NUTRIENTS
POPULATION DYNAMICS
SOILS
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS