Using models to guide field experiments: a priori predictions for the CO2 response of a nutrient- and water-limited native Eucalypt woodland.

Abstract

(where possible) A release with all code, scripts, met forcing data and experimental setup to recreate EucFACE simulations in Medlyn et al. 2016: Using models to guide field experiments: a priori predictions for the CO2 response of a nutrient- and water-limited native Eucalypt woodland, Global Change Biology. Summary: Global change experiments on terrestrial ecosystems are important but costly, and only a few can be carried out worldwide. Process-based vegetation models are needed to extrapolate from these experiments to predict impacts across regions and the globe. To ensure that “EucFACE”, a new CO2 enrichment experiment on native Eucalypt woodland, informs models as much as possible, we ran seven such models in advance. The model predictions disagreed, indicating we particularly need to use this experiment to learn about: how soil phosphorus limits growth; how plant respiration responds; and how much growth is reduced by drought