Climate change and site: relevant mechanisms and modeling techniques

Forest growth modeling is moving away from description and toward explanati on. The acceptance of global warming and effects related to climate change has reinforced this evolution. In the recent past, there have been several reviews of modeling techniques that have addressed, among other things, mod el structure and hierarchies within models. We argue that models seeking to adequately address climate change must include a specific suite of site ch aracteristics. These range from primary effects of climate change (temperat ure, CO2, and O-3 increase) to secondary effects (increase in soil temperat ure, microbial activity, and changes in precipitation patterns) and tertiar y effects (changes in tree phenology and photosynthesis). This paper (i) co mpares 12 existing individual tree growth simulators designed to address cl imate change or related effects, (ii) proposes a set of site-related mechan isms and entities to be included in any modeling framework to address clima te change, and (iii) suggests appropriate lines of research to attain the g oal of a model driven by climate and able to be initialized with readily av ailable metrics. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.