Terrestrial ecosystems strongly determine the exchange of carbon, water and energy between the
biosphere and atmosphere. These exchanges are influenced by environmental conditions (e.g., local
meteorology, soils), but generally mediated by organisms. Often, mathematical descriptions of these
processes are implemented in terrestrial biosphere models. Model implementations of this kind should
be evaluated by empirical analyses of relationships between observed patterns of ecosystem functioning, vegetation structure, plant traits, and environmental conditions. However, the question of how to
describe the imprint of plants on ecosystem functioning based on observations has not yet been systematically investigated. One approach might be to identify and quantify functional attributes or responsiveness
of ecosystems (often very short-term in nature) that contribute to the long-term (i.e., annual but also
seasonal or daily) metrics commonly in use. Here we define these patterns as “ecosystem functional properties”, or EFPs. Such as the ecosystem capacity of carbon assimilation or the maximum light use efficiency
of an ecosystem. While EFPs should be directly derivable from flux measurements at the ecosystem level,
we posit that these inherently include the influence of specific plant traits and their local heterogeneity.
We present different options of upscaling in situ measured plant traits to the ecosystem level (ecosystem
vegetation properties – EVPs) and provide examples of empirical analyses on plants’ imprint on ecosystem functioning by combining in situ measured plant traits and ecosystem flux measurements. Finally,
we discuss how recent advances in remote sensing contribute to this framework
Terrestrial ecosystems strongly determine the exchange of carbon, water and energy between thebiosphere and atmosphere. These exchanges are influenced by environmental conditions (e.g., localmeteorology, soils), but generally mediated by organisms. Often, mathematical descriptions of theseprocesses are implemented in terrestrial biosphere models. Model implementations of this kind shouldbe evaluated by empirical analyses of relationships between observed patterns of ecosystem functioning, vegetation structure, plant traits, and environmental conditions. However, the question of how todescribe the imprint of plants on ecosystem functioning based on observations has not yet been systematically investigated. One approach might be to identify and quantify functional attributes or responsivenessof ecosystems (often very short-term in nature) that contribute to the long-term (i.e., annual but alsoseasonal or daily) metrics commonly in use. Here we define these patterns as “ecosystem functional properties”, or EFPs. Such as the ecosystem capacity of carbon assimilation or the maximum light use efficiencyof an ecosystem. While EFPs should be directly derivable from flux measurements at the ecosystem level,we posit that these inherently include the influence of specific plant traits and their local heterogeneity.We present different options of upscaling in situ measured plant traits to the ecosystem level (ecosystemvegetation properties – EVPs) and provide examples of empirical analyses on plants’ imprint on ecosystem functioning by combining in situ measured plant traits and ecosystem flux measurements. Finally,we discuss how recent advances in remote sensing contribute to this framework
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
