Biome BGC
A biogeochemical and ecophysiological model that uses general stand information and daily meteorological data to simulate energy, carbon, water, and nitrogen cycling.
Biome BGC emphasizes leaf area index (LAI) as a key structural attribute with substantial control on ecosystem processes. Numerous studies have shown that gross primary production (GPP) and net primary production (NPP) are positively correlated to LAI, because it controls the amount of incident radiation absorbed and converted into photosynthate. There is therefore a sound physiological basis for treating LAI as an important ecosystem attribute.
LAI can also be remotely sensed and used as a spatial input in Biome BGC to conduct regional to global carbon simulations, as shown in the work of Ahl and colleagues and Bond Lamberty and colleagues.
Respiration components such as heterotrophic respiration, autotrophic growth, and autotrophic maintenance are treated separately and governed by temperature and water limitations. NPP is partitioned into biomass compartments following dynamic allocation patterns that reflect nitrogen limitations.
The strong linkage between the water cycle and forest carbon cycles is a real advantage of this model for examining the long term effects of biomass removal on soil organic matter and nitrogen dynamics. Within that coupled structure, the carbon and nitrogen cycles set how much carbon the soil can hold.
Where Biome BGC fits
Biome BGC did not appear fully formed. It descends from Forest BGC and a wider family of ecosystem process models, and it continues to change. The evolution of Biome BGC traces that lineage, while model outputs show what the model produces when it is turned on real forests.