Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest
Abstract In tropical forests, both vegetation characteristics and soil properties are important not only for controlling energy, water, and gas exchanges directly but also determining the competition among species, successional dynamics, forest structure and composition. However, the joint effects o...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002603 |
| _version_ | 1798027079042727936 |
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| author | Yanyan Cheng L. Ruby Leung Maoyi Huang Charles Koven Matteo Detto Ryan Knox Gautam Bisht Mario Bretfeld Rosie A. Fisher |
| author_facet | Yanyan Cheng L. Ruby Leung Maoyi Huang Charles Koven Matteo Detto Ryan Knox Gautam Bisht Mario Bretfeld Rosie A. Fisher |
| author_sort | Yanyan Cheng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract In tropical forests, both vegetation characteristics and soil properties are important not only for controlling energy, water, and gas exchanges directly but also determining the competition among species, successional dynamics, forest structure and composition. However, the joint effects of the two factors have received limited attention in Earth system model development. Here we use a vegetation demographic model, the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES) implemented in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model (ELM), ELM‐FATES, to explore how plant traits and soil properties affect tropical forest growth and composition concurrently. A large ensemble of simulations with perturbed vegetation and soil hydrological parameters is conducted at the Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The simulations are compared against observed carbon, energy, and water fluxes. We find that soil hydrological parameters, particularly the scaling exponent of the soil retention curve (Bsw), play crucial roles in controlling forest diversity, with higher Bsw values (>7) favoring late successional species in competition, and lower Bsw values (1 ∼ 7) promoting the coexistence of early and late successional plants. Considering the additional impact of soil properties resolves a systematic bias of FATES in simulating sensible/latent heat partitioning with repercussion on water budget and plant coexistence. A greater fraction of deeper tree roots can help maintain the dry‐season soil moisture and plant gas exchange. As soil properties are as important as vegetation parameters in predicting tropical forest dynamics, more efforts are needed to improve parameterizations of soil functions and belowground processes and their interactions with aboveground vegetation dynamics. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:45:35Z |
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| id | doaj.art-c1a0ada4ff3f4a3ab87b69163f53f44c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1942-2466 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:45:35Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-c1a0ada4ff3f4a3ab87b69163f53f44c2022-12-22T04:08:49ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems1942-24662022-01-01141n/an/a10.1029/2021MS002603Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical ForestYanyan Cheng0L. Ruby Leung1Maoyi Huang2Charles Koven3Matteo Detto4Ryan Knox5Gautam Bisht6Mario Bretfeld7Rosie A. Fisher8Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Richland WA USAAtmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Richland WA USAOffice of Science and Technology Integration National Weather Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Silver Spring MD USAClimate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley CA USADepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Princeton University Princeton NJ USAClimate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley CA USAAtmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Richland WA USASmithsonian Tropical Research Institute Panama City PanamaCICERO Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo NorwayAbstract In tropical forests, both vegetation characteristics and soil properties are important not only for controlling energy, water, and gas exchanges directly but also determining the competition among species, successional dynamics, forest structure and composition. However, the joint effects of the two factors have received limited attention in Earth system model development. Here we use a vegetation demographic model, the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES) implemented in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model (ELM), ELM‐FATES, to explore how plant traits and soil properties affect tropical forest growth and composition concurrently. A large ensemble of simulations with perturbed vegetation and soil hydrological parameters is conducted at the Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The simulations are compared against observed carbon, energy, and water fluxes. We find that soil hydrological parameters, particularly the scaling exponent of the soil retention curve (Bsw), play crucial roles in controlling forest diversity, with higher Bsw values (>7) favoring late successional species in competition, and lower Bsw values (1 ∼ 7) promoting the coexistence of early and late successional plants. Considering the additional impact of soil properties resolves a systematic bias of FATES in simulating sensible/latent heat partitioning with repercussion on water budget and plant coexistence. A greater fraction of deeper tree roots can help maintain the dry‐season soil moisture and plant gas exchange. As soil properties are as important as vegetation parameters in predicting tropical forest dynamics, more efforts are needed to improve parameterizations of soil functions and belowground processes and their interactions with aboveground vegetation dynamics.https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002603tropical forestcoexistencevegetation demographic modelEarth system modelE3SM‐FATESsoil properties |
| spellingShingle | Yanyan Cheng L. Ruby Leung Maoyi Huang Charles Koven Matteo Detto Ryan Knox Gautam Bisht Mario Bretfeld Rosie A. Fisher Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems tropical forest coexistence vegetation demographic model Earth system model E3SM‐FATES soil properties |
| title | Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest |
| title_full | Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest |
| title_fullStr | Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest |
| title_short | Modeling the Joint Effects of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties on Ecosystem Dynamics in a Panama Tropical Forest |
| title_sort | modeling the joint effects of vegetation characteristics and soil properties on ecosystem dynamics in a panama tropical forest |
| topic | tropical forest coexistence vegetation demographic model Earth system model E3SM‐FATES soil properties |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002603 |
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