Montreal University

Published purpose

The boreal biome constitutes an integral component of the climate system. Our limited quantitative understanding of coupled carbon and water fluxes hampers reliably predicting the boreal biome response to projected increases in disturbance frequency and intensity. This project will enhance the ecological realism of the boreal biome in a terrestrial biosphere model (CLASSIC). After exploring empirical relationships between microwave vegetation optical depth (VOD) and tree hydraulic traits, we will introduce a tree hydraulics scheme into CLASSIC. Next, we will use regional VOD-derived tree hydraulic traits to constrain past, present and future flux simulations with CLASSIC across the boreal biome.