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Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project Project Description
The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project, VEMAP, is a multi-institutional, international effort whose goal is to evaluate the sensitivity of terrestrial ecosystem and vegetation processes to altered climate forcing and elevated atmospheric CO2. Objectives: 1. Comparison of model output for current conditions 2. Intercomparison of the climate and CO2 sensitivity of three biogeochemistry models (plant production and soil biogeochemical process models) and three vegetation lifeform distribution models (biogeography models). 3. Linking vegetation distribution and ecosystem physiology models to evaluate the joint response of these processes to altered conditions. VEMAP is supported by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) , NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) , and USDA Forest Service Southern Global Change Program. Development of the VEMAP database was additionally supported by the National Science Foundation's Climate Dynamics Program through the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research's Climate System Modeling Program. The Dataset: Phase I consists of a database of a model database of climate, soils, and vegetation compatible with the requirements of three ecosystem physiology models and three vegetation lifeform distribution models. The database is on a 0.5 degree latitude/longitude grid for the conterminous United States. For more information, link to http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/vemap/mainpage.html Access the VEMAP Data files at http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/vemap/data_access.html |
