MAPSS

Wiki quality control

Has flag	N/A

Name, responsible organisation and contact person

Has full name	MAPSS
Has acronym	MAPSS
Has wiki contact person	Ray Drapek
Has wiki contact e-mail	rdrapek@fs.fed.us

Software identification

Has software	MAPSS.Software

Description

Has description	MAPSS (Mapped Atmosphere-Plant-Soil System) is a landscape- to global-scale vegetation distribution model that was developed to simulate the potential biosphere impacts and biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks from climatic change.
Has modelling scope	Forest indicators, Ecological indicators, Climate change
Has temporal scale	Long term (strategic)
Has spatial context	Spatial with neighbourhood interrelations
Has spatial scale	Regional/national level
Has objectives dimension	Single objective
Has related DSS
Has goods and services dimension	Non-market services
Has decision making dimension	Single decision maker
Has forest management goal	biodiversity evaluation, climate change impact, forest ecology, forest vegetation management
Supports tree species
Supports silvicultural regime

Concrete application

Has typical use case
Has user profile
Has country
Has references about examples of application
Has number of users	N/A
Has number of real-life applications	N/A
Has utilisation in education	N/A
Has research project reference
Has tool dissemination

Decision support techniques used in the DSS

Has decision support techniques	MAPSS.Decision support techniques

Support of Knowledge Management

Has knowledge management processes	MAPSS.Knowledge management process

Support of social participation

Has support for social participation	MAPSS.Support of social participation

DSS development

Has DSS development	MAPSS.Description of DSS development

Documentation

Has website
Has online demo
Has manual	No
Has technical documentation	No
Has reference

Brief overview

MAPSS (Mapped Atmosphere-Plant-Soil System) is a landscape- to global-scale vegetation distribution model that was developed to simulate the potential biosphere impacts and biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks from climatic change.

Scope of the system

System origin

MAPSS was originally developed in the early 1990's by Ron Neilson at the Environmental Protection Agency laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon; and he subsequently refined it after moving to the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Laboratory. It was developed as a response to the need for a process-based capability to simulate the potential changes in the distribution of the world's major biotic regions under climate change. The MAPSS model was constructed under a philosophy of ecosystem constraints and it combines a process-based water balance model with a physiologically conceived rule-based model to simulate both thermal and water balance constraints on vegetation life-form (e.g., tree. shrub, or grass: evergreen or deciduous: broadleaf or needleleaf) and biome physiognomy (e.g., forest. savanna, or shrub-steppe). The fundamental assumption under which MAPSS calculates water-limited vegetation type and density is that the vegetation leaf area will find a maximum that just utilizes the available soil water. Fire has been incorporated in the MAPSS model as a disturbance factor that can alter the equilibrium state of the ecosystem. Grass-tree competition has also been incorporated in the model.

MAPSS has been used as a research tool and has not been developed as a commercial product. MAPSS was used in the second assessment of the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for regional and global assessments of climate change impacts on vegetation, and was also included in the Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP).

Support for specific issues

MAPSS has been used for predictions of biome redistribution, habitat loss and migration rates, changes in forest productivity, changes in surface runoff, and changes in forest stress areas under different scenarios of climate change.

Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type

• Vegetation Distribution
• Biodiversity
• Conservation
• Volatile Organic Compound Emissions
• Climate Change
• Site Water Balance
• Carbon Sequestration

Capability to support decision making phases

The MAPSS model potentially can contribute to a variety of different topics (eg. vegetation distributions, wildlife conservation, water availability, carbon managemente). The contribution of the MAPSS model to decision making phases depends in part on which topic is under consideration.

• Intelligence. The following are examples of problem identification questions that the MAPSS model can be used to answer: How likely is it that the vegetation type that currently is at my site will still be viable in the future under climate change? Can I expect drought-induced die-offs? Will my current set of nature preserves still be able to provide habitat for an endangered species? Will more or less water be available for stream-flows under future climates? Will US forests still prove to be carbon sinks 100 years from now?

• Design.

• Choice.

• Monitor.

Related systems

The MC1 dynamic vegetation model is an off-shoot of the MAPSS biogeography model. It is a linking of a MAPSS-like biogeography model with the CENTURY biogeochemistry model and with a fire model. This means that it also has the ability to simulate vegetation type changes under future climates, hydrology, as well as carbon storage dynamics, and fire.

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

MAPSS has been run: 1) Globally at a half degree grid, 2) Over the conterminous United States at a half degree grid, and 3) Over the conterminous USA at a 10 kilometer grid.

Forest data input

For input MAPSS requires: 12-month average climate data (precipitation, temperature, wind, vapor pressure). Soil data for 3 depths (%sand, %clay, %rockiness).

As output MAPSS produces maps of vegetation type, leaf area index, and surface runoff (more to be listed).

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

NA

Models

Forest models

MAPSS is a general ecosystem model which includes 11 forest classes, 9 tree savanna classes, as well as shrubland and grassland classes.

Social models

NA

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

As described in the Decision Making Phases section above. MAPSS mostly provides information for the intelligence phase of decision making.

Typical temporal scale of application

MAPSS is an equilibrium model, which means that it simulates the long term ecosystem response to long term average climate.

Types of decisions supported

MAPSS is probably most appropriately used for long term strategic decision-making.

Decision-making processes and models

MAPSS is a deterministic simulation model. No randon processes are included.

Output

Types of outputs

MAPSS produces average annual maps of leaf area, vegetation type, broad vegetation classes (deciduous vs evergreen, broadleaf vs needle leaf), fire occurence, evaporative demand, snowpack, runoff, as well as other output variables.

MAPSS produces average monthly maps of leaf area, evaporative demand, runoff, snow pack, as well as other output variables.

Spatial analysis capabilities

MAPSS outputs are in Network Common Data Form (NetCDF). NetCDF is a set of software libraries and machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data. It is frequently used by climate modelers. The data is gridded and can be loaded into GIS software for overlays and other analyses, but the data needs to be converted to a format the GIS can read. C, Fortran, C++, and Java all have software libraries for working with NetCDF data, and other interfaces to NetCDF data can be found in MATLAB, Objective-C, Perl, Python, R, Ruby, and Tcl/Tk. More information on NetCDF and the tools that can be used to read it can be found at https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/.

Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues

MAPSS cannot be used of itself to evaluate interactions between different basic information types (biophysical, economic, social). MAPSS will provide information for the biophysical aspects of questions involving ecosystems and climate change; and it can be used as one source of information for other tools that can do this kind of integration.

System

System requirements

The MAPSS model was originally developed as a research vehicle and was not designed with easy portability in mind. But there has been a demand for access to MAPSS code and it was subsequently packaged and placed on the ORNL/DAAC website (http://daac.ornl.gov/MODELS/guides/MAPSS_guide.html). The version of MAPSS included in this distribution was compiled and run on Sun Microsystems Ultrasparc sun4u machines running on the Solaris 8 operating system. The C compiler was the Sun Workshop Compiler C 5.0. A makefile is provided with the distribution and MAPSS can be compiled by typing “make all”.

Architecture and major DSS components

Usage

MAPSS has been used mostly as a research tool.

Computational limitations

User interface

MAPSS is command-line driven (no GUI). Command line options allow the user to adjust for climate data, row/column ranges within the climate data, choices of methods for evapotranspiration calculations, output file name, parameter file names, and other options.

Documentation and support

The ORNL website listed above provides documentation for installing and running MAPSS. For further questions, users can contact Ray Drapek (rdrapek@fs.fed.us) or Ron Neilson (rneilson@fs.fed.us).

Installation

• Prerequisite knowledge: Computer fluency and programming experience are needed to install and run MAPSS. It was originally designed as a research vehicle and is not particularly user friendly.

• Cost: MAPSS is free. The only cost is the time it takes to learn how to successfully install and run the software.

• Demo: No demo is available.

References

references

D. Bachelet, M. Brugnach, and R. P. Neilson. 1998. Sensitivity of a biogeography model to soil properties. Ecological Modelling. Volume 109, Issue 1, 1 June 1998, Pages 77-98

Dominique Bachelet, Ronald P. Neilson, James M. Lenihan and Raymond J. Drapek. 2001. Climate Change Effects on Vegetation Distribution and Carbon Budget in the United States. Ecosystems. Volume 4, Number 3, 164-185

Melillo, J. M.; Borchers, J.; Chaney, J.; Fisher, H.; Fox, S.; Haxeltine, A.; Janetos, A.; Kicklighter, D. W.; Kittel, T. G. F.; McGuire, A. D.; McKeown, R.; Neilson, R.; Nemani, R.; Ojima, D. S.; Painter, T. 1995. Vegetation/ecosystem modeling and analysis project: Comparing biogeography and biogeochemistry models in a continental-scale study of terrestrial ecosystem responses to climate change and CO2 doubling. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Volume 9, Issue 4, p. 407-438.

Ronald P. Neilson. 1993. Vegetation redistribution: A possible biosphere source of CO2 during climatic change. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. Volume 70, Numbers 1-4, 659-673.

Ronald P. Neilson and Danny Marks. 1994. A global perspective of regional vegetation and hydrologic sensitivities from climatic change. Journal of Vegetation Science. Volume 5. Issue 5. Pages 609-756.

Ronald P. Neilson. 1995. A model for predicting continental-scale vegetation destribution and water balance. Ecological Applications 5(2). pp 362-385.

Ronald P. Neilson and Raymond J. Drapek. 1998. Potentially complex biosphere responses to transient global warming. Global Change Biology. Volume 4. Issue 5. Pages 505-521.

Brent Sohngen and Robert Mendelsohn. 1998. Valuing the Impact of Large-Scale Ecological Change in a Market: The Effect of ClimateChange on U.S. Timber. The American Economic Review, Vol. 88, No. 4, pp. 686-710.

VEMAP Members. 1995. Vegetation/ecosystem modeling an analysis project. Comparing biogeography and biogeochemistry models in a continental-scale study of terrestrial ecosystem responses to climate change and CO2 doubling. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol 9. No. 4. Pages 407-437.

External resources