Skip to main content
University of Wisconsin Madison crest Carbon Model modeling carbon budgets in large terrestrial ecosystems

Model Outputs

Biome BGC can output many carbon, nitrogen, and water state pools and fluxes at daily, monthly, or yearly time steps.

The model can generate outputs tailored to different kinds of studies. Two of them are worth following in detail, because together they show both halves of the forest carbon cycle at work.

Disturbance

Effects of wildfire

How fire reshapes leaf area, net primary production, and carbon stocks along a boreal forest chronosequence, and how it changes the carbon and water budgets of a region.

Effects of Wildfire

Products

GHG LCA

A life cycle assessment of greenhouse gases in the dimensional lumber and magazine industries, tracing emissions from harvest to final product.

Greenhouse gas life cycle assessment

Reading the output

State pools describe how much carbon, nitrogen, or water is held in a compartment, such as vegetation or soil, at a point in time. Fluxes describe how fast material moves between compartments. Choosing daily, monthly, or yearly steps depends on whether the study is about a single growing season or a multi decade succession. The driver data for these outputs come from the water cycle and the carbon and nitrogen cycles described elsewhere on this site.

Effects of wildfire Greenhouse gas life cycle