Modelling ecosystem and atmosphere interactions

Concerns about global climate change have created a demand for more knowledge about how the atmosphere interacts with vegetation and ecosystems. A European research team has developed a computer model to simulate the exchange of carbon dioxide, water and energy between any ecosystem and the atmosphere.

Climate Change and Environment

The EU-funded CARBOMONT project studied the effects of changes in land use in mountainous areas of Europe on the flow of carbon into or out of the atmosphere. The project team developed a soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model that comprises several sub-modules to calculate the flows of energy and gases within a single column that includes air, plant-life and ground layers. Micrometeorological modules take into account the effects of gaseous momentum and turbulence, precipitation of water, and the transfer of radiation, such as heat and light, within the atmosphere. A soil module then models the respiration of animal and plant life within the soil, as well as exchanges of heat and water with the air. An energy balance model takes the environmental data generated by the meteorological modules in order to compute the exchange of heat in its various forms. A special module within this model calculates the effects of photosynthesis and respiration in the vegetation. The software is now available for further work on the influence of land-use on the interacting processes that release "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere. As such it has the potential to contribute to the evolving scientific consensus on climate change.