Abstract
Afforestation and reforestation to meet ‘Net Zero’ emissions targets are considered a necessary policy by many countries. Their potential benefits are usually assessed through forest carbon and growth models. The implementation of vegetation demography gives scope to represent forest management and other size-dependent processes within land surface models (LSMs). In this paper, we evaluate the impact of including management within an LSM that represents demography, using both in-situ and reanalysis climate drivers at a mature, upland Sitka spruce plantation in Northumberland, UK. We compare historical simulations with fixed and variable CO2 concentrations, and with and without tree thinning implemented. Simulations are evaluated against the observed vegetation structure and carbon fluxes. Including thinning and the impact of increasing CO2 concentration (‘CO2 fertilisation’) gave more realistic estimates of stand-structure and physical characteristics. Historical CO2 fertilisation had a noticeable effect on the Gross Primary Productivity seasonal–diurnal cycle and contributed to approximately 7% higher stand biomass by 2018. The net effect of both processes resulted in a decrease of tree density and biomass, but an increase in tree height and leaf area index.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 13487 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 18 Aug 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2023 |
Data Availability Statement
The version of the JULES-RED model used in this paper is available from the Met Office code repository (code.metoffice.gov.uk), applying for access is done via an online form: http://jules-lsm.github.io/access_req/JULES_access.html (accessed 03/02/2023). JULES-RED is a test branch labelled: r24142_test_vn7.0_add_red_sci_vn1.1, along with the model suite for running at Harwood is provided as a rose suite: u-cn548 on the repository. The CHESS-met31 dataset can be found through the link: https://doi.org/10.5285/2ab15bf0-ad08-415c-ba64-831168be7293, while the HWSD soil van Genuchten parameters ancillaries for the UK are detailed in Pinnington et al.47. Observations and JULES-RED outputs are stored in a data repository79: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7603502.
Access to Document
- Argles_SR_Modelling_The_Impact_VOR
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.