Integrating Species‐Specific Information in Models Improves Regional Projections Under Climate Change

Abstract

AbstractModels commonly used to project forest carbon response to climate change reduce biodiversity to a small number of plant functional types or plant functional traits for the sake of computational efficiency at large spatial scales. We simulated the climate sensitivity of the dominant woody vegetation types in New Mexico using both a generalized functional type and a species‐specific model parameterization. Both parameterizations achieve reasonable current carbon uptake rates and aboveground biomass amount at the ecosystem scale. When vegetation types are subjected to increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation, the generalized parameterization differs substantially from the species‐specific parameterization by homogenizing the diversity of adaptations for dealing with higher temperature and drought, leading to divergent responses under changing climate. We recommend integrating species‐specific information, when available, to improve projections of climate change impacts on forested ecosystems to develop robust ecosystem management strategies at regional scales.