Accounting for herbaceous communities in process‐based models will advance our understanding of “grassy” ecosystems

Journal Article · 09 October 2023 · Global Change Biology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16950 · OSTI ID:2067649

Wilcox, Kevin R.  ^[1]; Chen, Anping  ^[2]; Avolio, Meghan L.  ^[3]; Butler, Ethan E.  ^[4]; Collins, Scott  ^[5]; Fisher, Rosie  ^[6]; Keenan, Trevor  ^[7]; Kiang, Nancy Y.  ^[8]; Knapp, Alan K.  ^[2]; Koerner, Sally E.  ^[9]; Kueppers, Lara  ^[7]; Liang, Guopeng  ^[4]; Lieungh, Eva  ^[10]; Loik, Michael  ^[11]; Luo, Yiqi  ^[12]; Poulter, Ben  ^[13]; Reich, Peter  ^[14]; Renwick, Katherine  ^[15]; Smith, Melinda D.  ^[2]; Walker, Anthony  ^[16] ; Weng, Ensheng  ^[17]; Komatsu, Kimberly J.  ^[9]

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1. University of North Carolina Greensboro Greensboro North Carolina USA, University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming USA
2. Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA
3. Earth and Planetary Sciences Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Maryland USA
4. Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St. Paul Minnesota USA
5. Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico USA
6. CICERO Centre for International Cimate Research Forskningsparken Oslo Norway
7. Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley California USA
8. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies New York New York USA
9. University of North Carolina Greensboro Greensboro North Carolina USA
10. Natural History Museum University of Oslo Oslo Norway
11. Department of Environmental Studies University of California Santa Cruz California USA
12. School of Integrative Plant Science Cornell University Ithaca New York USA
13. Biospheric Sciences Lab NASA GSFC Greenbelt Maryland USA
14. Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St. Paul Minnesota USA, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University Penrith New South Wales Australia
15. US Forest Service Northern Region Missoula Montana USA
16. Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee USA
17. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies New York New York USA, Center for Climate Systems Research Columbia University New York New York USA

Abstract Grassland and other herbaceous communities cover significant portions of Earth's terrestrial surface and provide many critical services, such as carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and food production. Forecasts of global change impacts on these services will require predictive tools, such as process‐based dynamic vegetation models. Yet, model representation of herbaceous communities and ecosystems lags substantially behind that of tree communities and forests. The limited representation of herbaceous communities within models arises from two important knowledge gaps: first, our empirical understanding of the principles governing herbaceous vegetation dynamics is either incomplete or does not provide mechanistic information necessary to drive herbaceous community processes with models; second, current model structure and parameterization of grass and other herbaceous plant functional types limits the ability of models to predict outcomes of competition and growth for herbaceous vegetation. In this review, we provide direction for addressing these gaps by: (1) presenting a brief history of how vegetation dynamics have been developed and incorporated into earth system models, (2) reporting on a model simulation activity to evaluate current model capability to represent herbaceous vegetation dynamics and ecosystem function, and (3) detailing several ecological properties and phenomena that should be a focus for both empiricists and modelers to improve representation of herbaceous vegetation in models. Together, empiricists and modelers can improve representation of herbaceous ecosystem processes within models. In so doing, we will greatly enhance our ability to forecast future states of the earth system, which is of high importance given the rapid rate of environmental change on our planet.

• Research Organization: University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0019037
• OSTI ID: 2067649
• Journal Information: Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 29; ISSN 1354-1013
• Publisher: Wiley-BlackwellCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English