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The climatic sensitivity of NPP estimates by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model for the coterminous United States

Conference · · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States)
OSTI ID:7161887
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
The Vegetation/Ecosystem Model analysis Project (VEMAP), which was initiated to compare models of biogeochemistry and vegetation distribution, has developed climatic data sets for the coterminous United States. We ran the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) at 0.5[degrees] resolution using the VEMAP monthly temperature and precipitation data and compared to the NPP estimates with those using the climatic data of Legates and Willmott (L W). For the coterminous U.S., TEM calculates 3.7% less NPP with the VEMAP data than with the L W climate. Decreases in NPP generally occur in moist ecosystems and are associated with lower temperature; temperate conifer forest has 10.5% less NPP with a 3.3 C[degrees] decreases in temperature. However, increases in NPP generally occur in dry ecosystems and are associated with higher precipitation; xeromorphic woodlands has 6.2% higher NPP with 80 mm more precipitation. We conclude that estimates of NPP are more sensitive to differences in climatic inputs at regional than at continental scales.
OSTI ID:
7161887
Report Number(s):
CONF-940894--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States) Journal Volume: 75:2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English