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Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) typically abstract the immense diversity of vegetation forms and functioning into a relatively small set of predefined semi-empirical Plant Functional Types (PFTs). There is growing evidence, however, from the field ecology community as well as from modelling studies that current PFT schemes may not adequately represent the observed variations in plant functional traits and their effect on ecosystem functioning. In this paper, we introduce the Jena Diversity DGVM (JeDi-DGVM) as a new approach to global vegetation modelling with a richer representation of functional diversity than traditional modelling approaches based on a small number of fixed PFTs.
JeDi-DGVM simulates the performance of a large number of randomly-generated plant growth strategies (PGSs), each defined by a set of 15 trait parameters which characterize various aspects of plant functioning including carbon allocation, ecophysiology and phenology. Each trait parameter is involved in one or more functional trade-offs. These trade-offs ultimately determine whether a PGS is able to survive under the climatic conditions in a given model grid cell and its performance relative to the other PGSs. The biogeochemical fluxes and land-surface properties of the individual PGSs are aggregated to the grid cell scale using a mass-based weighting scheme.
Simulated global biogeochemical and biogeographical patterns are evaluated against a variety of field and satellite-based observations following a protocol established by the Carbon-Land Model Intercomparison Project. The land surface fluxes and vegetation structural properties are reasonably well simulated by JeDi-DGVM, and compare favorably with other state-of-the-art terrestrial biosphere models. This is despite the parameters describing the ecophysiological functioning and allometry of JeDi-DGVM plants evolving as a function of vegetation survival in a given climate, as opposed to typical approaches that fix land surface parameters derived from observational datasets for each PFT. The approach implemented here in JeDi-DGVM sets the foundation for future applications that will explore the impacts of explicitly resolving diverse plant communities, allowing for a more flexible temporal and spatial representation of the structure and function of the terrestrial biosphere.
