Modeling China's terrestrial ecosystem gross primary productivity with BEPS model: Parameter sensitivity analysis and model calibration

Terrestrial ecosystems are the largest sink for carbon, and their ecosystem gross primary productivity (GPP) regulates variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. Current process-based ecosystem models used for estimating GPP are subject to large uncertainties due to poorly constrained parameter values. In this study, we implemented a global sensitivity analysis (GSA) on parameters in the Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS) considering the parameters' second-order impacts. We also applied the generalized likelihood estimation (GLUE) method, which is flexible for a multi-parameter calibration, to optimize the GPP simulation by BEPS for 10 sites covering 7 plant functional types (PFT) over China. Our optimized results significantly reduced the uncertainty of the simulated GPP over all the sites by 17 % to 82 % and showed that the GPP is sensitive to not only the photosynthesis-related parameters but also the parameters related to the soil water uptake as well as to the energy balance. The optimized GPP across South China showed that the mix forest, shrub, and grass have a higher GPP and are more controlled by the soil water availability. This study showed that the GLUE method together with the GSA scheme could constrain the ecosystem model well when simulating GPP across multiple ecosystems and provide a reasonable estimate of the spatial and temporal distribution of the ecosystem GPP over China. We call for more observations from more sites, as well as data on plant traits, to be collected in China in order to better constrain ecosystem carbon cycle modeling and understand its response to climate change.

Automated summary

This study used global sensitivity analysis and generalized likelihood estimation methods to optimize the simulation of gross primary productivity (GPP) for different plant functional types in China. The results showed that GPP is not only sensitive to photosynthesis-related parameters but also parameters related to soil water uptake and energy balance. The study demonstrated that the applied methods can effectively constrain ecosystem models and provide reasonable estimates of the spatial and temporal distribution of GPP in China.