Climate-ecosystem modelling made easy: The Land Sites Platform

Area of Science:

• Earth System Science
• Ecology
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) are crucial for understanding vegetation-environment interactions.
• Existing DGVMs present technical barriers for many ecologists and physiologists.
• Untapped potential exists for DGVMs in ecological and ecophysiological research.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the Land Sites Platform (LSP) to lower barriers for DGVM use.
• Facilitate single-site simulations using the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES) and Community Land Model (CLM).
• Improve accessibility and usability of DGVMs for a broader research community.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Land Sites Platform (LSP) with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Application Programming Interface (API).
• Distributed LSP via version-controlled containers for cross-platform compatibility and low hardware requirements.
• Provided input data for 20 Norwegian geo-ecological sites and workflows for generic site integration.

Main Results:

• LSP enables easier installation and setup of DGVM experiments.
• Supports site-level simulations with accessible default data for standard experiments.
• Includes tools for visualizing model input/output and relating predictions to local observations.

Conclusions:

• LSP significantly improves access to land surface and DGVM modeling.
• Empowers researchers and students with enhanced usability for mechanistic ecosystem research.
• Fosters interdisciplinary research by integrating DGVMs into community cyberinfrastructure.