Advances in dynamic ecosystem modelling have made a number of different approaches to vegetation dynamics possible. Here we compare two models representing contrasting degrees of abstraction of the processes governing dynamics in real vegetation. Model (a) (GUESS) simulates explicitly growth and competition among individual plants. Differences in crown structure (height, depth, area and LAI) influence relative light uptake by...

The objective of the European Terrestrial Ecosystem Modelling Activity (ETEMA) was to address some of the major challenges in developing generalized models to examine responses of natural and seminatural ecosystems to environmental change at the regional to European scale. The approach described herein was to break down the totality of ecosystem functioning into its key components, each with its characteristic spatial and temp...

Summary The possible responses of ecosystem processes to rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration and climate change are illustrated using six dynamic global vegetation models that explicitly represent the interactions of ecosystem carbon and water exchanges with vegetation dynamics. The models are driven by the IPCC IS92a scenario of rising CO 2 ( Wigley et al . 1991 ), and by climate changes resulting from effective CO 2 concen...