Towards Amazon Basin-Scale Vegetation-Hydrology Modeling Using ELM-ParFlow-FATES
Authors
Yilin Fang1* (yilin.fang@pnnl.gov), Ruby Leung1, Lingcheng Li1, Marcos Longo2, Charles Koven2, Nate McDowell1, Robinson Negron-Juarez2, Jeffrey Chambers2,3
Institutions
1Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA; 2Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA; 3University of California–Berkeley, CA
URLs
Abstract
Moderated by topography, climate change is likely to cause large and diverse impacts on plant water availability, with consequential impacts on vegetation dynamics and water cycle processes. The project has developed an integrated model, ELM-ParFlow-FATES, which couples the E3SM Land Model (ELM), an ecosystem dynamics model (Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator; FATES), and a three-dimensional hydrology model (ParFlow) to explicitly resolve hillslope topography and subsurface flow for better understanding of the processes that drive plant water availability and tropical forest dynamics. Numerical simulations of 1-km resolution are conducted using ELM-ParFlow-FATES at the Amazon basin, leveraging high-resolution hydraulic parameter maps for surface soils and 1 km land surface dataset in tropical South America. Four types of tropical trees that are dominant in the Amazon are simulated in the model using the FATES-SP mode. The model results are being evaluated using highly resolved hydrological and vegetation data retrieved from the new generation of satellite missions. Analysis is also being performed to understand water storage, vegetation water sourcing along hillslope gradients, and vegetation response to flood and drought. Numerical experiments will then be performed using ELM-ParFlow-FATES to answer questions of how dynamic structure and biomass of different vegetations in Amazon respond to climate change.