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Research article2014Peer reviewed

Vegetation-specific model parameters are not required for estimating gross primary production

Yuan WP, Cai WW, Liu SG, Dong WJ, Chen JQ, Arain MA, Blanken PD, Cescatti A, Wohlfahrt G, Georgiadis T, Genesio L, Gianelle D, Grelle A, Kiely G, Knohl A, Liu D, Marek MV, Merbold L, Montagnani L, Panferov O, Peltoniemi M, Rambal S, Raschi A, Varlagin A, Xia JZ

Abstract

Models of gross primary production (GPP) based on remote sensing measurements are currently parameterized with vegetation-specific parameter sets and therefore require accurate information on the distribution of vegetation to drive them. Can this parameterization scheme be replaced with a vegetation-invariant set of parameters that can maintain or increase model applicability by reducing errors introduced from the uncertainty of land cover classification? Based on the measurements of ecosystem carbon fluxes from 168 globally distributed sites in a range of vegetation types, we examined the predictive capacity of seven light use efficiency (LUE) models. Two model experiments were conducted: (i) a constant set of parameters for various vegetation types and (ii) vegetation-specific parameters. The results showed no significant differences in model performance in simulating GPP while using both set of parameters. These results indicate that a universal of set of parameters, which is independent of vegetation cover type and characteristics can be adopted in prevalent LUE models. Availability of this well tested and universal set of parameters would help to improve the accuracy and applicability of LUE models in various biomes and geographic regions. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Light use efficiency; Gross primary production; Model parameters

Published in

Ecological Modelling
2014, Volume: 292, pages: 1-10

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Ecology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.08.017

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/64947