Evaluation of the Biome-BGCMuSo model across agricultural and forest sites in Central Europe

Ecosystem models provide a valuable tool to quantitatively describe the complex interlinked processes at the soil-plant-atmosphere interface. When combined with measurements, the well-structured process-based models allow to integrate the observed data in a framework where the individual variables gain higher interpretability and can better contribute to understanding of the complex ecosystem responses to a wide range of environmental conditions. Moreover, the models can be then applied to upscale the observed data to larger spatial scales, can be used for simulation under different (e.g. future) climatic conditions and atmospheric composition, or can be used for testing the impacts of changes in management, land use change, disturbances, etc. Biome-BGCMuSo is a widely used, popular biogeochemical model that simulates the storage and flux of water, carbon, and nitrogen between the ecosystem and the atmosphere, and within the components of the terrestrial ecosystems. In this contribution, Biome-BGCMuSo will be evaluated at several sites representing agricultural and forest ecosystems in the Czech Republic and Austria. These sites are equipped with eddy-covariance measurements of CO₂, water and energy fluxes including other ancillary measurements. The main emphasis will be put on evaluation of gross and net primary productivity, net ecosystem exchange, transpiration, evaporation and soil water content dynamics. The robustness of the phenological submodule parameterization will be further examined using remotely sensed leaf area index data along the altitudinal gradient. The evaluation and model parameterization provides a first step in the wider effort in which the Biome-BGCMuSo will be integrated together with measurements of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases concentrations within an atmospheric inversion system aiming to understand the spatial distribution of the greenhouse gases fluxes (i.e., sources and sinks) and their temporal dynamics. This knowledge is crucial for enhancing climate change mitigation strategies.

 

Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (grant AdAgriF - Advanced methods of greenhouse gases emission reduction and sequestration in agriculture and forest landscape for climate change mitigation (CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004635).