LPJmL - Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land Dynamic Global Vegetation and Water Balance Model
What does the model do?
LPJmL simulates vegetation composition and distribution as well as stocks and land-atmosphere exchange flows of carbon and water, for both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Using a combination of ecophysiological relations, generalised empirically established functions and plant trait parameters, it computes processes such as photosynthesis, plant growth, maintenance and regeneration losses, fire disturbance, soil moisture, runoff, evapotranspiration, irrigation and vegetation structure. The monthly input and output data are spatially explicit time series (typically 60,000 global 0.5 degree grid cells). Grid cells may contain mosaics of one or several types of natural or agricultural (prescribed) vegetation. The model now also simulates the production of woody and herbaceous short-rotation bio-energy plantations.
Who maintains the model?
LPJmL is a model jointly developed and maintained by RD1 and RD2 at PIK.
Contact: D. Gerten, S. Schaphoff, K. Thonicke
In what way is the model different from other models in the community?
The model is leading in its category: it is one of only a small number of published Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs, which have played an important role e.g. in the IPCC process); it is the DGVM that has generated the most publications over the last decade; and it is currently the only DGVM that has dynamic land use fully incorporated at the global scale and is functional. It is therefore one of the most important biogeochemically oriented global-scale land use models available. It differs from other models in the wider field by computing both carbon and water flows explicitly: most other macro-hydrological models lack the important vegetation structural and physiological responses that influence the water cycle, while most other vegetation models lack the advanced consistent water balance of LPJmL, or are not global in scale.
Key publications
Bondeau, A., Smith, P., Zaehle, S., Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W., Cramer, W., Gerten, D., Lotze-Campen, H., Müller, C., Reichstein, M., Smith, B. 2007. Modelling the role of agriculture for the 20th century global terrestrial carbon balance. Global Change Biology 13, 679–706.
Rost, S., Gerten, D., Bondeau, A., Lucht, W., Rohwer, J., Schaphoff, S. 2008: Agricultural green and blue water consumption and its influence on the global water system. Water Resources Research 44, W09405, doi:10.1029/2007WR006331.
Homepage: LPJ & LPJmL Web Distribution Portal
