FOREST ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS - LINKING FOREST SUCCESSION, SOIL PROCESS AND RADIATION MODELS

The Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) project involves the development of an integrated mathematical model which links individual submodels of soil processes, forest growth and succession, and radiative transfer. The model will accommodate spatial scales from local to regional, and temporal scales from physiological to long term ecological processes. In its integrated form, the model is designed to simulate a forest ecosystem operating in a ''process-response'' manner whereby natural or anthropogenically induced changes in the environment will elicit responses within the soil, vegetation, and radiation regime of a forest that will impact and modify each other. In order to insure maximum flexibility for both the modeler and the user, an ''object-oriented'' structure will be implemented. In this way, the model will provide a tool with which patterns and processes within northern forests resulting from global change can be predicted.