ALBERT

Description: The process-based model 4C (FORESEE) has been developed over the past twenty years. The objective of this paper is to give a comprehensive description of the main features of 4C and to present an evaluation of the model at four different forest sites across Europe. The evaluation was focused on growth parameters, carbon, water and heat fluxes. The main data source for the evaluation was the PROFOUND database. We applied different statistical metrics of evaluation and compared the inter-annual and inter-monthly variability of observed and simulated carbon and water fluxes. The ability to reproduce forest growth differs from site to site and is best for the pine stand site Peitz. The model's performance in simulating carbon and water fluxes was very satisfactory on daily and monthly time scales in contrast to the annual time scale. This underlines the conclusion that processes that are either not represented in dependence on on medium- to long-term dynamic influences such as allocation, or those that are not represented at all but may have a large impact at specific sites – such as the dynamics of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) and ground vegetation growth – need to be elaborated for general forest growth investigations under climate change. On the other hand, 4C has shown a great potential for improvement since it emphasizes the representation of boundary conditions such as soil temperature at different depths. Therefore, more spatial differentiation of processes such as organ-specific respiration should easily be accomplished. Nonetheless, by using the PROFOUND database we were able to demonstrate the applicability and reliability of 4C.

Description: Process-based vegetation models are widely used to predict local and global ecosystem dynamics and climate change impacts. Due to their complexity, they require careful parameterization and evaluation to ensure that projections are accurate and reliable. The PROFOUND Database (PROFOUND DB) provides a wide range of empirical data on European forests to calibrate and evaluate vegetation models that simulate climate impacts at the forest stand scale. A particular advantage of this database is its wide coverage of multiple data sources at different hierarchical and temporal scales, together with environmental driving data as well as the latest climate scenarios. Specifically, the PROFOUND DB provides general site descriptions, soil, climate, CO2, nitrogen deposition, tree and forest stand level, and remote sensing data for nine contrasting forest stands distributed across Europe. Moreover, for a subset of five sites, time series of carbon fluxes, atmospheric heat conduction and soil water are also available. The climate and nitrogen deposition data contain several datasets for the historic period and a wide range of future climate change scenarios following the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, RCP8.5). We also provide pre-industrial climate simulations that allow for model runs aimed at disentangling the contribution of climate change to observed forest productivity changes. The PROFOUND DB is available freely as a “SQLite” relational database or “ASCII” flat file version (at https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2020.006/; Reyer et al., 2020). The data policies of the individual contributing datasets are provided in the metadata of each data file. The PROFOUND DB can also be accessed via the ProfoundData R package (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ProfoundData; Silveyra Gonzalez et al., 2020), which provides basic functions to explore, plot and extract the data for model set-up, calibration and evaluation.

Description: 29 April 2020: Release of Version 0.3 This is an updated version of Reyer et al., (2019, V. 0.1.12, http://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.008). All changes and updates are documented in the changelog available via the data download section. Current process-based vegetation models are complex scientific tools that require proper evaluation of the different processes included in the models to prove that the models can be used to integrate our understanding of forest ecosystems and project climate change impacts on forests. The PROFOUND database (PROFOUND DB) described here aims to bring together data from a wide range of data sources to evaluate vegetation models and simulate climate impacts at the forest stand scale. It has been designed to fulfill two objectives: - Allow for a thorough evaluation of complex, process-based vegetation models using multiple data streams covering a range of processes at different temporal scales - Allow for climate impact assessments by providing the latest climate scenario data. Therefore, the PROFOUND DB provides general a site description as well as soil, climate, CO2, Nitrogen deposition, tree-level, forest stand-level and remote sensing data for 9 forest stands spread throughout Europe. Moreover, for a subset of 5 sites, also time series of carbon fluxes, energy balances and soil water are available. The climate and nitrogen deposition data contains several datasets for the historic period and a wide range of future climate change scenarios following the Representative Emission Pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, RCP8.5). In addition, we also provide pre-industrial climate simulations that allow for model runs aimed at disentangling the contribution of climate change to observed forest productivity changes. The PROFOUND Database is available freely but we incite users to respect the data policies of the individual datasets as provided in the metadata of each data file. The database can also be accessed via the PROFOUND R-package, which provides basic functions to explore, plot and extract the data. The data (PROFOUND DB) are provided in two different versions (ProfoundData.sqlite download as ProfoundData.zip, ProfoundData_ASCII.zip) accompanied by a change-log to the previous published version (changelog_Profound-DB_v03.pdf), auxiliary data of reconstructed single tree data at the site Sorø (Soroe_DBH_H_AGE_20200428.zip) and documented by the three explanatory documents: (1) PROFOUNDdatabase.pdf: describes the structure, organisation and content of the PROFOUND DB. (2) PROFOUNDsites.pdf: displays the main data of the PROFOUND DB for each of the 9 forest sites in tables and plots. (3) ProfoundData.pdf: explains how to use the PROFOUND R-Package "ProfoundData" to access the PROFOUND DB and provides example scripts on how to apply it.

Description: Forest biodiversity underpins social welfare by preserving ecosystem multifunctionality and the provision of ecosystem goods and services. Still, the social value of biodiversity is not adequately incorporated into forest management and decision support models. This study proposes a novel approach for defining socially optimal biodiversity levels, wood supply and taxation schemes under climate change. We developed a partial equilibrium model to maximize consumers’ and producers’ surplus until the end of the century, including climate change impacts as productivity shocks in a coupled ecological-economic framework. In our model, we consider a first-best and a second-best taxation scheme to internalize the value of forest biodiversity into forest planning. The framework developed here was applied to a temperate forest landscape in southwestern Germany, where biodiversity has a high social value. Our results indicate an increasing consumption of wood and supply of biodiversity (up to 38.4 %) until the end of the century. Moreover, climate change may affect forest productivity, optimal harvesting rates and taxation schemes. Crucially, current management is unable to capture the adequate social value of biodiversity and is inefficient under climate change. Policy mechanisms are therefore required to correct biodiversity provision in temperate forest landscapes.

Description: Im Dialog mit Akteuren der Landnutzung wurden die Leitmotive Klimaschutz, Bioenergieerzeugung, Umwelt- und Naturschutz und Klimaanpassung herausgearbeitet und anschließend in Landnutzungsstrategien untersucht sowie die möglichen Beiträge dieser Landnutzungsstrategien zu gesellschaftlichen Zielen geprüft. Die Szenarienstudie CC-LandStraD fokussiert auf Vermeidungsstrategien des Klimawandels. Betrachtete Klimaszenarien illustrieren die Unsicherheit zukünftiger Entwicklungen. Die Wirkungen ausgewählter Maßnahmen und Landnutzungsstrategien wurden mit Hilfe eines interdisziplinären Modellverbundes im Rahmen eines komparativ-statischen Vergleichs untersucht, und zwar für die Landnutzungssektoren Siedlung und Verkehr sowie Land- und Forstwirtschaft. Anschließend wurden Maßnahmen gebündelt und zu Strategien zusammengefasst und die Wirkungen regional differenziert im Hinblick auf Änderungen der Flächennutzung, land- und forstwirtschaftlicher Produktion und Einkommen sowie Simulation von Waldbeständen sowie Stoffflüssen ausgewertet.