SIBBORK: A new spatially-explicit gap model for boreal forest

Abstract

Climate change is altering forests globally, some in ways that may promote further warming at the regional and even continental scales. In order to predict how forest ecosystems might adapt to a changing climate, it is important to understand the resilience and vulnerabilities that each species within that current ecosystem might have to a modified future environment. Complex systems that occupy large spatial domains and change slowly, on the order of decades to centuries, do not lend themselves easily to direct observation. A simulation model is often the more appropriate and attainable approach toward understanding the inner workings of large, slow-changing systems, and how they may change with imposed perturbations. We report on a new, spatially-explicit dynamic vegetation model SIBBORK developed for the purpose of investigating the effects of climatological changes on the long-term dynamics, structure and composition of the Siberian boreal forest.