The Community Land Model is part of a larger model suite called the Community Earth System Model (CESM). The model represents the land model for the modeling system, which aims to model changes in climate based on interaction of physical, chemical and biological processes in the atmosphere, oceans, and land surface. As described by UCAR (2012), the model "formalizes and quantifies concepts of ecological climatology" an interdisciplinary framework to understand how natural and human changes in vegetation affect climate". The model consists of component models relating to biogeophysics (the exchange of water, energy, and momentum with the atmosphere), hydrologic cycle (precipitation, evaporation, snow cover, plant interception of water, etc.), biogeochemistry (exchanges of chemicals with the atmosphere), and dynamic vegetation (how plants interact with the atmosphere, also succession and changing ecosystems).
The model emphasizes that terrestrial ecosystems have an important determinant effect on global climate. The model is quite robust, and can be used to describe numerous traits and cycles of an ecosystem, including:
This toolbox entry has been labelled with the following tags:
| Sector: | agriculture; forests; biodiversity and ecosystems; | |
| Spatial scale: | regional | |
| Temporal focus: | future | |
| Onset: | slow | |
| Role in decision process: | diagnostic | |
| Level of skills required: | high | |
| Data requirements: | high | |
| Adaptation tasks: | Potential impact projection; Residual impact projection |
Strengths:
The Community Land Model is predominately used as a component of the Community Climate System Model, and inputs into the CCSM are utilized to model global climate change. The CLM itself allows for numerous modeling possibilities; it is used by the EU Forest Fire case study to model future areas at risk of fires, and possible adaptation measures to reduce risk (Kloster et al 2010). Other modeling uses are described in the description above.
The CESM model suite is offered for download by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and extensive user's guides are provided for both the main model and sub-components such as the CLM, but users should note that this is not a model which may easily be implemented on a personal computer, as it requires a relatively large amount of computing power. Extensive knowledge of the models, and an understanding of programming in different languages is also required, and while the user's guide is extensive, use of CLM is not to be seen as something which can be done easily.
To obtain the CESM source code, free registration is required, as well as a valid email address.
Link to user's guide of CLM:
http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/clm/
Link to CESM download:
http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/
The case study pool contains the following steps that were performed applying the described entry:
