Vegetation demographics in Earth System Models: A review of progress and priorities

Fisher, Rosie A.; Koven, C.; Anderegg, William R. L.; Christoffersen, Bradley; Dietze, Michael C.; Farrior, Caroline E.; Holm, Jennifer A.; Hurtt, George C.; Knox, R. G.; Lawrence, P.; Lichstein, Jeremy W.; Longo, Marcos; Matheny, Ashley M.; Medvigy, D.; Muller‐Landau, Helene C.; Powell, Thomas L.; Serbin, Shawn P.; Sato, Hisashi; Shuman, J. K.; Smith, Benjamin; Trugman, Anna T.; Viskari, Toni; Verbeeck, Hans; Weng, Ensheng; Xu, Chonggang; Xu, Xiangtao; Zhang, Tao; Moorcroft, P. R.

doi:10.1111/gcb.13910

Cited by 538 publications

(627 citation statements)

References 227 publications

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“…A quarter century of theory and observation linking species diversity and canopy traits to production has substantially advanced the mechanistic understanding of these relationships, while exposing the limitations of conventional species diversity and canopy structural features as indicators of ecosystem functioning (Loreau et al 2001, Hooper et al 2005. Our observation that structural complexity measures outperform conventional canopy traits as predictors of NPP suggests that ecosystem models, which characterize structure in vastly different ways (Fisher et al 2018), may enhance their mechanistic rigor by representing vegetation in multiple spatial dimensions. In particular, remote sensing tools such as lidar and hyperspectral imaging offer novel ways to characterize canopy structure, and their broad adoption by ecologists is key to the development and scrutiny of functionally focused canopy traits (Asner et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

High rates of primary production in structurally complex forests

Gough

Atkins

Fahey

et al. 2019

Ecology

120

117

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Structure-function relationships are central to many ecological paradigms. Chief among these is the linkage of net primary production (NPP) with species diversity and canopy structure. Using the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) as a subcontinental-scale research platform, we examined how temperate-forest NPP relates to several measures of site-level canopy structure and tree species diversity. Novel multidimensional canopy traits describing structural complexity, most notably canopy rugosity, were more strongly related to site NPP than were species diversity measures and other commonly characterized canopy structural features. The amount of variation in site-level NPP explained by canopy rugosity alone was 83%, which was substantially greater than that explained individually by vegetation area index (31%) or Shannon's index of species diversity (30%). Forests that were more structurally complex, had higher vegetation-area indices, or were more diverse absorbed more light and used light more efficiently to power biomass production, but these relationships were most strongly tied to structural complexity. Implications for ecosystem modeling and management are wide ranging, suggesting structural complexity traits are broad, mechanistically robust indicators of NPP that, in application, could improve the prediction and management of temperate forest carbon sequestration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

High rates of primary production in structurally complex forests

Gough

Atkins

Fahey

et al. 2019

Ecology

120

117

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“…This suggests that environmental filtering and species interactions mainly act largely independently in shaping the growth of recruited stems in this lowland rainforest, which has important implications for improving predictions of the future dynamics of tropical forests (Fisher et al. ). Nevertheless, the interaction between topographic variables and neighborhood crowding strongly influenced individual growth for 91 of the 1,047 species that together represent 17.0% of the stems at Yasuní, suggesting that these community assembly mechanisms can interact in shaping species dynamics in highly diverse tropical rainforests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topography and neighborhood crowding can interact to shape species growth and distribution in a diverse Amazonian forest

Fortunel

Lasky

Uriarte

et al. 2018

Ecology

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Abiotic constraints and biotic interactions act simultaneously to shape communities. However, these community assembly mechanisms are often studied independently, which can limit understanding of how they interact to affect species dynamics and distributions. We develop a hierarchical Bayesian neighborhood modeling approach to quantify the simultaneous effects of topography and crowding by neighbors on the growth of 124,704 individual stems ≥1 cm DBH for 1,047 tropical tree species in a 25-ha mapped rainforest plot in Amazonian Ecuador. We build multi-level regression models to evaluate how four key functional traits (specific leaf area, maximum tree size, wood specific gravity and seed mass) mediate tree growth response to topography and neighborhood crowding. Tree growth is faster in valleys than on ridges and is reduced by neighborhood crowding. Topography and crowding interact to influence tree growth in ~10% of the species. Specific leaf area, maximum tree size and seed mass are associated with growth responses to topography, but not with responses to neighborhood crowding or with the interaction between topography and crowding. In sum, our study reveals that topography and neighborhood crowding each influence tree growth in tropical forests, but act largely independently in shaping species distributions. While traits were associated with species response to topography, their role in species response to neighborhood crowding was less clear, which suggests that trait effects on neighborhood dynamics may depend on the direction (negative/positive) and degree of symmetry of biotic interactions. Our study emphasizes the importance of simultaneously assessing the individual and interactive role of multiple mechanisms in shaping species dynamics in high diversity tropical systems.

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“…Improving the characterization of forest structure and accounting for gross structural transitions in climate models is crucial to instilling greater confidence in predictions that inform prospective mitigation and adaptation policies involving the forestry sector. The concept of integrating forest “age cohorts” into land models is important for being able to account for time‐dependent structural dynamics in secondary forests (Fisher et al, ; McGrath et al, ; Yue et al, ). The use of NFI data to constrain structural parameters of forest age cohorts can help ensure that the simulated structural transitions match those seen in practice.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring Surface Albedo Prediction Error Linked to Forest Structure at High Latitudes

et al. 2018

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Predicting the surface albedo of a forest of a given species composition or plant functional type is complicated by the wide range of structural attributes it may display. Accurate characterizations of forest structure are therefore essential to reducing the uncertainty of albedo predictions in forests, particularly in the presence of snow. At present, forest albedo parameterizations remain a nonnegligible source of uncertainty in climate models, and the magnitude attributable to insufficient characterization of forest structure remains unclear. Here we employ a forest classification scheme based on the assimilation of Fennoscandic (i.e., Norway, Sweden, and Finland) national forest inventory data to quantify the magnitude of the albedo prediction error attributable to poor characterizations of forest structure. For a spatial domain spanning ~611,000 km2 of boreal forest, we find a mean absolute wintertime (December–March) albedo prediction error of 0.02, corresponding to a mean absolute radiative forcing ~0.4 W/m2. Further, we evaluate the implication of excluding albedo trajectories linked to structural transitions in forests during transient simulations of anthropogenic land use/land cover change. We find that, for an intensively managed forestry region in southeastern Norway, neglecting structural transitions over the next quarter century results in a foregone (undetected) radiatively equivalent impact of ~178 Mt‐CO2‐eq. year−1 on average during this period—a magnitude that is roughly comparable to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of a country such as The Netherlands. Our results affirm the importance of improving the characterization of forest structure when simulating surface albedo and associated climate effects.

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Vegetation demographics in Earth System Models: A review of progress and priorities

Cited by 538 publications

References 227 publications

High rates of primary production in structurally complex forests

High rates of primary production in structurally complex forests

Topography and neighborhood crowding can interact to shape species growth and distribution in a diverse Amazonian forest

Inferring Surface Albedo Prediction Error Linked to Forest Structure at High Latitudes

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