Development of the IAP Dynamic Global Vegetation Model

The IAP Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (IAP-DGVM) has been developed to simulate the distribution and structure of global vegetation within the framework of Earth System Models. It incorporates our group’s recent developments of major model components such as the shrub sub-model, establishment and competition parameterization schemes, and a process-based fire parameterization of intermediate complexity. The model has 12 plant functional types, including seven tree, two shrub, and three grass types, plus bare soil. Different PFTs are allowed to coexist within a grid cell, and their state variables are updated by various governing equations describing vegetation processes from fine-scale biogeophysics and biogeochemistry, to individual and population dynamics, to large-scale biogeography. Environmental disturbance due to fire not only affects regional vegetation competition, but also influences atmospheric chemistry and aerosol emissions. Simulations under observed atmospheric conditions showed that the model can correctly reproduce the global distribution of trees, shrubs, grasses, and bare soil. The simulated global dominant vegetation types reproduce the transition from forest to grassland (savanna) in the tropical region, and from forest to shrubland in the boreal region, but overestimate the region of temperate forest.