Process pixel landscape model The recently developed software PROXELLS for landscape modelling is expected to provide better insight on the carbon dioxide fluxes, particularly for mountain ecosystems under different land use. Climate Change and Environment © PhotoDisc The large variability of land use in non-forest mountain areas is considered to have brought significant alterations in the landscape pattern and ecosystems in Europe. These changes can have a great impact on the spatial arrangement of plant canopies, species composition and physiology as well as in available nutrient efficiency. As a result, carbon dioxide exchanges are severely affected causing increases in the atmospheric concentrations. The potential hazards involved with the emissions of greenhouse gases led to the Kyoto Protocol that aims at their strict limitations and reductions within the next years. Supporting this effort, the CARBOMONT project investigated the effects of land-use changes on sources, sinks and fluxes of carbon in European non-forest mountain areas. For the purposes of the project, researchers developed and adapted Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transfer (SVAT) models for the ecosystems under study. More specifically, the Process Pixel Landscape (PROXELLS) model was developed to supply input layers in pixel format to the 1-D SVAT model. The latter is used for calculation of fluxes of water vapour and carbon dioxide between biosphere and atmosphere. Input layers provide important information concerning direct and diffuse topographical and elevation profiles of solar energy. Additional data along elevation gradients include parameters of canopy conductance, Leaf Area Index in both forest and grassland and meteorological variables. The PROXELLS model is very flexible since input is a series of matrices with specific pixel-based information and it has been extensively tested. Current testing version offers estimates of direct and diffuse radiation at each point hourly during simulation runs and employs a relatively fixed structure and physiology along elevation gradients. For more information click at the project site: http://carbomont.uibk.ac.at
