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On the Ecology of Mountainous Forests in a Changing Climate: A ...

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54 Chapter 3<br />

3.2.3 Environment submodel: The abiotic forest environment<br />

The submodels for plant dynamics and soil organic matter turnover are based on abiotic<br />

<strong>in</strong>put variables, such as <strong>the</strong> annual sum <strong>of</strong> degree-days, which could be calculated best<br />

from very detailed wea<strong>the</strong>r records, e.g. hourly temperature measurements. However,<br />

with<strong>in</strong> an ecosystem model that calculates forest succession over many centuries, such a<br />

resolution is hardly feasible. Thus, <strong>the</strong>re arises <strong>the</strong> need to sacrifice <strong>the</strong> precision <strong>of</strong><br />

detailed wea<strong>the</strong>r data to allow for general and simple calculations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> abiotic conditions.<br />

Monthly wea<strong>the</strong>r data capture some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> basic features <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> annual wea<strong>the</strong>r<br />

cycle, and <strong>the</strong>y mediate between <strong>the</strong> annual time step <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r submodels and more<br />

detailed approaches. Thus, monthly temperature and precipitation data seem to be a good<br />

compromise and will be used <strong>in</strong> FORCLIM.<br />

ForClim-E:<br />

Abiotic environment submodel<br />

WEATHER<br />

GENERATION<br />

Climatic<br />

parameters<br />

T y,m,l<br />

BIOCLIMATIC<br />

VARIABLES<br />

PET m,y,l<br />

DD m,y,l<br />

PET y,l<br />

uWiT<br />

uDD<br />

uDrStr<br />

ForClim-P: Plants<br />

P y,m,l<br />

WD m,y,l<br />

SM y,m,l<br />

uAET<br />

ForClim-S: Soil<br />

Fig. 3.4: Structure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> submodel <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> abiotic environment (FORCLIM-E). The<br />

identifiers are expla<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> text and <strong>in</strong> Fischl<strong>in</strong> et al. (1994).<br />

The environment submodel is divided <strong>in</strong> two parts (Fig. 3.4): (1) The generation <strong>of</strong><br />

monthly wea<strong>the</strong>r data from <strong>the</strong> long-term statistical distributions, and (2) <strong>the</strong> translation <strong>of</strong><br />

monthly wea<strong>the</strong>r data <strong>in</strong>to bioclimatic variables, i.e. environmental scalars that <strong>in</strong>fluence

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