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Title: TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL SCALING FROM INDIVIDUAL TREES TO PLANTATIONS: A MODELING STRATEGY

Author
item HOST, G - UNIV OF MINNESOTA
item ISEBRANDS, J - FORESTRY SCI LAB
item THESEIRA, G - UNIV OF MINNESOTA
item Kiniry, James
item GRAHAM, R - OAK RIDGE NAT LAB

Submitted to: Biomass and Bioenergy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/2/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Hybrid poplar is an alternative crop which can be used to generate electricity when burned. Conversion of crop land to such tree plantations will need evaluation of environmental impacts such as changes in soil erosion. This paper describes the linking of such an soil erosion model (EPIC) with a complex tree model (ECOPHYS). The end product will help in evaluation of U.S. sites for hybrid poplar production.

Technical Abstract: A strategy for scaling an individual tree-based process model to the plantation and linking it with a model operating at a larger temporal and spatial scale is presented. The strategy includes methods for scaling information from leaves to branches to a whole tree to a population of trees. We also suggest statistical methods for scaling from a representative patch to a plantation. More specifically, we have outlined how input and output data is passed between the two models, and how carbon, in the form of biomass and leaf litter, and nitrogen, in the soil-plant cycle, provide not only a common currency between the two models, but also provide the opportunity for positive and negative feedbacks that define whether site quality aggrades or declines under short rotation forestry. The end result is an integration of a highly mechanistic individual tree growth model with a plantation-scale model of soil productivity and erosion.