Search

While a new class of Dynamic Global Ecosystem Models (DGEMs) has emerged in the past few years as an important tool for describing global biogeochemical cycles and atmosphere-biosphere interactions, these models are still largely untested. Here we analyze the behavior of a new DGEM and compare the results to global-scale observations of water balance, carbon balance, and vegetation structure. In this study, we use version 2 of the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS), which includes several major improvements and additions to the prototype model developed by Foley et al. [1996]. IBIS is designed to be a comprehensive model of the terrestrial biosphere; the model represents a wide range of processes, including land surface physics, canopy physiology, plant phenology, vegetation dynamics and competition, and carbon and nutrient cycling. The model generates global simulations of the surface water balance (e.g., runoff), the terrestrial carbon balance (e.g., net primary production, net ecosystem exchange, soil carbon, aboveground and belowground litter, and soil CO2 fluxes), and vegetation structure (e.g., biomass, leaf area index, and vegetation composition). In order to test the performance of the model, we have assembled a wide range of continental and global-scale data, including measurements of river discharge, net primary production, vegetation structure, root biomass, soil carbon, litter carbon, and soil CO2 flux. Using these field data and model results for the contemporary biosphere (1965–1994), our evaluation shows that simulated patterns of runoff, NPP, biomass, leaf area index, soil carbon, and total soil CO2 flux agree reasonably well with measurements that have been compiled from numerous ecosystems. These results also compare favorably to other global model results.

Measurements of soil-surface CO2 fluxes are important for characterizing the carbon budget of boreal forests because these fluxes can be the second largest component of the budget. Several methods for measuring soil-surface CO2 fluxes are available: (1) closed-dynamic-chamber systems, (2) closed-static-chamber systems, (3) open-chamber systems, and (4) eddy covariance systems. This paper presents a field comparison of six individual systems for measuring soil-surface CO2 fluxes with each of the four basic system types represented. A single system is used as a reference and compared to each of the other systems individually in black spruce (Picea mariana), jack pine (Pinus banksiana), or aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests. Fluxes vary from 1 to 10 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1. Adjustment factors to bring all of the systems into agreement vary from 0.93 to 1.45 with an uncertainty of about 10–15%.

A new method for measuring plant canopy nonrandomness and other architectural components has been developed using a 16 bit (65535 gray scale levels) charged-coupled device (CCD) camera that captures images of plant canopies in two wavelength bands. This complete system is referred to as a multiband vegetation imager (MVI). The use of two wavelength bands (visible (VIS) 400–620 nm and near infrared (NIR) 720–950 nm) permits identification of sunlit and shaded foliage, sunlit and shaded branch area, clouds, and blue sky based on the camera's resolution, and the varying spectral properties that scene components have in the two wavelength bands. This approach is different from other canopy imaging methods (such as fish-eye photography) because it emphasizes measuring the fraction of an image occupied by various scene components (branches, shaded leaves, sunlit leaves) under different sky conditions rather than simply the canopy gap fraction under uniform sky conditions. The MVI has been used during the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) in aspen (Populus tremuloides) and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) to estimate architectural characteristics of each canopy. The leaf area index (LAI), sunlit LAI, and degree of nonrandomness within a canopy are architectural properties that have been measured with the MVI. Using a crown-based Monte Carlo model for nonrandom canopies, nonrandomness factors are calculated from MVI data using two approaches (gap fraction and gap-size distribution theories) to correct total and sunlit LAI estimates from indirect methods that assume random foliage distributions. Canopy nonrandomness factors obtained from analyzing the gap-size distribution in a Monte Carlo model are shown to be a function of path length (angle) through the canopy (Ωe(θ)); thus we suggest that LAI-2000 indirect measurements of LAI be adjusted with the value of Ωe(θ) at θ=35° because this is the mean angle at which the canopy gap fraction is measured by the LAI-2000. In this study, values of Ωe(35)=0.69 in an aspen forest. Alternatively, corrections to indirect LAI measurements obtained with the MVI in this study are made using the value of Ωe(0) because the MVI is used to measure the canopy gap-size distribution and gap fraction within 15° of the zenith. Values of Ωe(0) obtained with the MVI in aspen are typically between 0.55 and 0.65; while in balsam poplar, average values of Ωe(0) are equal to 0.82. This study shows that the MVI provides an attractive indirect measurement technique to obtain accurate estimates of total LAI in aspen. Corrected canopy LAI and direct LAI measurements are greater than indirect estimates based on assuming the foliage to be randomly distributed: In aspen, total LAI is 45% larger (3.3 versus 2.0) and sunlit LAI (40° Sun zenith angle) 10% larger, while in balsam poplar, total LAI is 17% larger (2.3 versus 1.9) and sunlit LAI is only 1% larger. The importance of these clumping characteristics is best appreciated with estimates of canopy net CO2 assimilation derived from scaling leaf photosynthesis versus light relations. Aspen canopy assimilation accounting for clumping is 39% larger than estimates based on indirect measurements of total LAI and the assumption that foliage is randomly distributed.

Leaf area index (LAI) is a key structural characteristic of forest ecosystems because of the role of green leaves in controlling many biological and physical processes in plant canopies. Accurate LAI estimates are required in studies of ecophysiology, atmosphere-ecosystem interactions, and global change. The objective of this paper is to evaluate LAI values obtained by several research teams using different methods for a broad spectrum of boreal forest types in support of the international Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS). These methods include destructive sampling and optical instruments: the tracing radiation and architecture of canopies (TRAC), the LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer, hemispherical photography, and the Sunfleck Ceptometer. The latter three calculate LAI from measured radiation transmittance (gap fraction) using inversion models that assume a random spatial distribution of leaves. It is shown that these instruments underestimate LAI of boreal forest stands where the foliage is clumped. The TRAC quantifies the clumping effect by measuring the canopy gap size distribution. For deciduous stands the clumping index measured from TRAC includes the clumping effect at all scales, but for conifer stands it only resolves the clumping effect at scales larger than the shoot (the basic collection of needles). To determine foliage clumping within conifer shoots, a video camera and rotational light table system was used. The major difficulties in determining the surface area of small conifer needles have been largely overcome by the use of an accurate volume displacement method. Hemispherical photography has the advantage that it also provides a permanent image record of the canopies. Typically, LAI falls in the range from 1 to 4 for jack pine and aspen forests and from 1 to 6 for black spruce. Our comparative studies provide the most comprehensive set of LAI estimates available for boreal forests and demonstrate that optical techniques, combined with limited direct foliage sampling, can be used to obtain quick and accurate LAI measurements.

This study used the Biome Biogeochemical Cycles (Biome-BGC) process model to simulate boreal forest dynamics, compared the results with a variety of measured carbon content and flux data from two boreal chronosequences in northern Manitoba, Canada, and examined how model output was affected by water and nitrogen limitations on simulated plant production and decomposition. Vascular and nonvascular plant growth were modeled over 151 years in well-drained and poorly drained forests, using as many site-specific model parameters as possible. Measured data included (1) leaf area and carbon content from site-specific allometry data, (2) aboveground and belowground net primary production from allometry and root cores, and (3) flux data, including biometry-based net ecosystem production and tower-based net ecosystem exchange. The simulation used three vegetation types or functional groups (evergreen needleaf trees, deciduous broadleaf trees, and bryophytes). Model output matched some of the observed data well, with net primary production, biomass, and net ecosystem production (NEP) values usually (50–80% of data) within the errors of observed values. Leaf area was generally underpredicted. In the simulation, nitrogen limitation increased with stand age, while soil anoxia limited vascular plant growth in the poorly drained simulation. NEP was most sensitive to climate variability in the poorly drained stands. Simulation results are discussed with respect to conceptual issues in, and parameterization of, the Biome-BGC model.

[1] Understanding the effects of wildfire on the carbon (C) cycle of boreal forests is essential to quantifying the role of boreal forests in the global carbon cycle. Soil surface CO2 flux (Rs), the second largest C flux in boreal forests, is directly and indirectly affected by fire and is hypothesized to change during forest succession following fire. The overall objective of this study was to measure and model Rs for a black spruce (Picea mariana [Mill.] BSP) postfire chronosequence in northern Manitoba, Canada. The experiment design was a nested factorial that included two soil drainage classes (well and poorly drained) × seven postfire aged stands. Specific objectives were (1) to quantify the relationship between Rs and soil temperature for different aged boreal black spruce forests in well-drained and poorly drained soil conditions, (2) to examine Rs dynamics along postfire successional stands, and (3) to estimate annual soil surface CO2 flux for these ecosystems. Soil surface CO2 flux was significantly affected by soil drainage class (p = 0.014) and stand age (p = 0.006). Soil surface CO2 flux was positively correlated to soil temperature (R2 = 0.78, p < 0.001), but different models were required for each drainage class × aged stand combination. Soil surface CO2 flux was significantly greater at the well-drained than the poorly drained stands (p = 0.007) during growing season. Annual soil surface CO2 flux for the 1998, 1995, 1989, 1981, 1964, 1930, and 1870 burned stands averaged 226, 412, 357, 413, 350, 274, and 244 g C m-2 yr−1 in the well-drained stands and 146, 380, 300, 303, 256, 233, and 264 g C m−2 yr−1 in the poorly drained stands. Soil surface CO2 flux during the winter (from 1 November to 30 April) comprised from 5 to 19% of the total annual Rs. We speculate that the smaller soil surface CO2 flux in the recently burned than the older stands is mainly caused by decreased root respiration.

[1] We used a dynamic, long-term mass balance approach to track cumulative carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) losses to fire in boreal Manitoba over the 6500 years since deglaciation. Estimated C losses to decomposition and fire, combined with measurements of N pools in mature and burned forest floors, suggest that loss of N by combustion has likely resulted in a long-term loss that exceeds the amount of N stored in soil today by 2 to 3 times. These estimates imply that biological N fixation rates could be as high as 5 to 10 times atmospheric deposition rates in boreal regions. At the site scale, the amount of N lost is due to N content of fuels, which varies by stand type and fire severity, which in turn vary with climate and fire dynamics. The interplay of fire frequency, fire severity, and N partitioning during regrowth are important for understanding rates and sustainability of nutrient and carbon cycling over millenia and over broad regions.

[1] This study examined the distribution and respiration dynamics of woody debris (WD) in a black spruce-dominated fire chronosequence in northern Manitoba, Canada. The chronosequence included seven stands that burned between 1870 and 1998; each stand contained separate well-drained and poorly drained areas. The objectives of this study were to (1) quantify the distribution of WD, by diameter and decay class, in well-drained and poorly drained stands across the chronosequence, (2) measure the evolution of CO2 from WD samples and model the effects of moisture, size and decay on respiration, and (3) model annual WD respiration and compute decay constants for each site. Coarse woody debris biomass ranged from 1.4 Mg ha−1 to 177.6 Mg ha−1, generally declining in the older stands of the chronosequence. More decayed WD had significantly (α = 0.05) higher moisture, lower density, and higher respiration rates than less decayed WD. Moisture and decay class were significant predictors of respiration when moisture was below 43%. Above this level, moisture was not significant, but stand soil drainage was significant, with drier sites having higher WD respiration. Year of burn was not significant in the respiration models. Modeled annual carbon emissions from WD ranged from 0.11 to 1.92 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. Modeled annual decay rates, between k = 0.01 and k = 0.06, changed across the age sequence. Thus a single-exponential decay model may not be appropriate for the age sequence. Calculating k directly from wood respiration measurements, as done here, may be useful in allowing examination of year-to-year changes in k.

[1] We quantified canopy transpiration (EC) using sap flux measurements representing the four major forest types (northern hardwoods, conifer, aspen/fir, and forested wetland) around the WLEF-TV tall tower in northern Wisconsin. In order to scale individual sap flux measurements to EC, we quantified the amount of sapwood area per unit ground area and the spatial distribution of sap flux within trees. Contrary to our hypothesis that all tree species would have the same positive relationship between tree diameter and sapwood depth, white cedar and speckled alder, both wetland species, showed no relationship. We also hypothesized that the conifer trees would have a lower whole tree hydraulic conductance than deciduous trees. We actually discovered that white cedar had the highest hydraulic conductance. Our third hypothesis, that sapwood area per unit ground area would determine stand EC, was not rejected. The resulting average daily EC values over 53 days (23 June to 16 August 2000) from combining sap flux and sapwood area per unit ground area were 1.4, 0.8, 2.1, and 1.4 mm d−1 for conifer, northern hardwoods, aspen/fir, and forested wetland cover types, respectively. Average daily EC was only explained by an exponential saturation with daily average vapor pressure deficit.