MAPSS (Mapped Atmosphere-Plant-Soil
System) is a landscape- to global-scale vegetation distribution
model that was developed to simulate the potential biosphere
impacts and biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks from climatic change.
Model output from MAPSS has been used extensively in the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) regional and global assessments
of climate change impacts on vegetation and in several other
projects.
Vegetation models developed by the MAPSS team are being continually
enhanced. MAPSS was originally a steady-state biogeography
model, able to simulate a map of potential natural vegetation
under a long-term average climate. Emerging technology couples
the biogeographical rule base of MAPSS with two different
ecosystem nutrient cycling models and a process-based fire
model in order to simulate the spatially explicit dynamics
of vegetation at landscape to global scales under both stable
and changing climates. These new dynamic vegetation models,
MC and BIOMAP,
will be useful for exploring management options at all scales
from landscape to regional, national, and global.
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