A modified Jarvis model to improve the expressing of stomatal response in a beech forest

The Jarvis-type model, which incorporates stress functions, is commonly used to describe the physiological behaviour of stomatal response in various vegetation species. However, the model has been criticized for its empirically formulated multiplicative equation, which may not accurately capture the mutual impact of intercorrelated stress factors, for example, vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and air temperature (T-a). This study proposed a modified Jarvis model that introduces reduction factors in the stress functions of VPD and T-a to provide the description of canopy conductance. We used sap flow data from a beech forest in the mid-latitude region of Centre Europe to inversely estimate the canopy conductance with optimized stress functions. Our findings reveal that two recommended parameterization strategies for general deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF) significantly overestimated the transpiration rate, with a maximum value of similar to 2 mm/day on rainless days. This suggested that the beech forest exhibited a distinct stomatal response compared to the general DBF category. By applying boundary line analysis to fit the parameters, both the unmodified and modified Jarvis models provided better simulations of transpiration, with relatively high Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) values of 0.75 and 0.77, respectively. These results indicated that modelling transpiration can be improved by refining the parameterization of canopy conductance, particularly for vegetation species with unique stomatal behaviours that deviated from the characteristics of their general vegetation type. The modified Jarvis model offers a more accurate description of canopy conductance and enhances the modelling of transpiration in vegetated areas, especially under dry environment conditions with relatively high VPD.

Automated summary

A modified Jarvis model is proposed to accurately describe canopy conductance by introducing reduction factors in the stress functions of vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and air temperature (T-a). The study reveals that traditional parameterization strategies overestimate the transpiration rate for vegetation species with unique stomatal behaviours, while the modified Jarvis model provides better simulations of transpiration.