Ecological Models and Data Intercomparison (EMDI): A proposal for an EMDI III Workshop (Ft.Collins, Colorado in March 2002)

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

The Ecosystem Model-Data Intercomparison (EMDI) program of the International Geosphere- Biosphere Programme (IGBP) task force on Global Analysis, Integration, and Modelling (GAIM) is facilitating interactions between international modeling and data synthesis teams, beyond what any individual team can reasonably propose or fund. This proposal is for a third EMDI workshop to be held at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in March, 2002. The proposed workshop will focus on the development of a new understanding of the nature and geographic variations in the carbon cycle, based on two earlier workshops in which model intercomparisons and model-data comparisons have been carried out. This workshop will focus on spatial analyses of regional and global ecosystem model results with observed annual net primary productivity (NPP), seasonal NPP, and time-series of carbon fluxes from FluxNet flux tower observations. Further analyses of model results and the new IGBP-DIS/GAIM Global Primary Production Data Initiative (GPPDI) data sets will be made. The comparisons of model outputs with field measurements will help to establish the level of confidence that we have in the processes and mechanisms that underlie the modeled carbon cycle dynamics. The workshop will also increase the ongoing collaboration between scientists developing models and those conducting field measurements.