Evaluating the Representation of Vegetation Phenology in the Community Land Model 4.5 in a Temperate Grassland

Vegetation plays an important role in terrestrial ecosystems and affects both water and carbon cycles. It is crucial to predict vegetation phenology accurately to understand the Earth's ecosystems better. In this study, we evaluated the temperate grassland phenology simulated by the Community L...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Biogeosciences 2019-02, Vol.124 (2), p.187-210
Main Authors: Zhang, Lexin, Lei, Huimin, Shen, Hong, Cong, Zhentao, Yang, Dawen, Liu, Tingxi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon
Carbon cycle
Communities
Community Land Model (CLM)
Computer simulation
Earth
Ecosystems
Evapotranspiration
Grasslands
Growing season
Imaging techniques
Leaf area
Leaf area index
Leaf Area Index (LAI)
Leaves
Low temperature
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
Phenology
Primary production
Seasons
Senescence
Spectroradiometers
Storage
temperate grasslands
Terrestrial ecosystems
Vegetation
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Summary:Vegetation plays an important role in terrestrial ecosystems and affects both water and carbon cycles. It is crucial to predict vegetation phenology accurately to understand the Earth's ecosystems better. In this study, we evaluated the temperate grassland phenology simulated by the Community Land Model 4.5 for the Northeast China Transect with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer leaf area index (LAI) data set. Results show that although the CLM could partly capture the seasonal patterns of LAI for temperate grasslands, shortcomings lie in a delayed end date of growing season and a problematic senescence existed in early summer. The reason is attributed to the low temperature threshold set for leaf offset and an inaccurate carbon allocation strategy for its display and storage. With the adjusted key phenology parameters, the modeled temperate grassland phenology has been substantially improved for this system: An overestimation of the growing‐season LAI as well as the annual gross primary productivity can be constrained. Meanwhile, the modified phenology would effectively change the partition of evapotranspiration in a more reasonable pattern. Key Points The underlying problems associated with the temperate grassland phenology scheme of CLM4.5 were identified Key phenological parameters were tested and adjusted using MODIS LAI The phenological modification has significant effects on simulating regional water and carbon fluxes
ISSN:2169-8953
2169-8961
DOI:10.1029/2018JG004866