NPP Multi-Biome: NPP and Driver Data for Ecosystem Model-Data Intercomparison

The Ecosystem Model-Data Intercomparison (EMDI), an on-going activity whose first workshop was held in Durham, New Hampshire, USA, in December 1999, provides the first opportunity for a wide range of global carbon cycle models to be compared with measured net primary productivity (NPP). The second EMDI workshop was held in April 2001 at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A. EMDI is supported by GAIM (Global Analysis, Integration and Modelling), a component of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). The goals of EMDI are to compare model estimates of terrestrial carbon fluxes (NPP) to estimates from ground-based measurements, and to improve understanding of environmental controls of carbon allocation. The primary questions to be addressed are to test simulated controls and model formulation on the water, carbon, and nutrient budgets with the observed NPP data providing the constraint for autotrophic fluxes and the integrity of scaled biophysical driving variables. EMDI - the NPP data from the NPP project forms the core data that was that was used in the EMDI Workshops (funded by GAIM and NCEAS). The workshop has resulted in a more NPP and model driver data being submitted to ORNL; in addition, the workshops provided a review of the data. NCEAS provided 6 months of time support for an intern at ORNL (Keri Johnson) to prepare data for the EMDI workshops.