Back to opportunities | Category Index
These are the intended use-case/justification for one or multiple variable groups. Opportunities are linked to relevant experiment groups. Identifying opportunities helps to provide a structure to map variables against requirements. Each opportunity description will convey why this combination of variables and experiments is important and how they contribute to impact.
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| description | This is a set of daily variables that would be useful to assess the ability of Earth system models to reproduce the observed changes in plant phenology. The proper representation of the plant's active season impacts the accuracy of the Earth system models in representing energy, carbon, and water exchanges between land and atmosphere. For this reason, the availability of these variables at the vegetation type level can increase our understanding of model limitations (Li et al., 2024, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0179.1) and their expected future changes. |
| expected_impacts | The historical experiment provides a benchmark to evaluate the model plant phenology biases (e.g. Peano et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2405-2021) while scenarios supply future changes. The main variable is the leaf area index (lai) commonly used to estimate the main phenophases (e.g. Peano et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JG004881). The variables of carbon exchange between land and atmosphere (i.e. gpp, npp, rh, and ra) allow us to link the biases in productivity with changes in phenology (e.g. Li et al., 2023, [10.22541/essoar.168298711.15374345/v1](https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.168298711.15374345/v1)). Finally, the landCoverFrac variable provides the relative influence of each vegetation type on the total grid cell. |
| justification_of_resources | To realistically simulate terrestrial ecosystem processes and land-atmosphere carbon, energy, and water exchanges, it is crucial that the seasonality and trend of plant phenology are correctly captured by the Earth system models. This opportunity delineates a set of variables and experiments needed to expand our understanding of model weaknesses and strengths. |
| lead_theme | Land & Land-Ice |
| minimum_ensemble_size | 1 |
| name | Plant Phenology |
| opportunity_id | 53 |
| data_request_themes | Land & Land-Ice, Earth System |
| experiment_groups | lmip, scenarios, historical |
| mips | LUMIP, PMIP |
| time_subsets | 80ac3156-a698-11ef-914a-613c0433d878 |
| variable_groups | plant_phenology_high, plant_phenology_medium |