Technical Note: The Simple Diagnostic Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (SDPRM)

• Main Authors: B. Badawy, C. Rödenbeck, M. Reichstein, N. Carvalhais, M. Heimann
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2013-10-01
• Series: Biogeosciences
• Online Access: http://www.biogeosciences.net/10/6485/2013/bg-10-6485-2013.pdf
• ISSN: 1726-4170; 1726-4189

We present a Simple Diagnostic Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (SDPRM) that has been developed based on pre-existing formulations. The photosynthesis model is based on the light use efficiency logic for calculating the gross primary production (GPP), while the ecosystem respiration (<i>R</i>_eco) is a modified version of an Arrhenius-type equation. SDPRM is driven by satellite-derived fAPAR (fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation) and climate data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research Reanalysis (NCEP/NCAR). The model estimates 3-hourly values of GPP for seven major biomes and daily <i>R</i>_eco. The motivation is to provide a priori fields of surface CO₂ fluxes with fine temporal and spatial scales for atmospheric CO₂ inversions. The estimated fluxes from SDPRM showed that the model is capable of producing flux estimates consistent with the ones inferred from atmospheric CO₂ inversion or simulated from process-based models. In this Technical Note, different analyses were carried out to test the sensitivity of the estimated fluxes of GPP and CO₂ to their driving forces. The spatial patterns of the climatic controls (temperature, precipitation, water) on the interannual variability of GPP are consistent with previous studies, even though SDPRM has a very simple structure and few adjustable parameters and hence it is much easier to modify in an inversion than more sophisticated process-based models. In SDPRM, temperature is a limiting factor for the interannual variability of <i>R</i>_eco over cold boreal forest, while precipitation is the main limiting factor of <i>R</i>_eco over the tropics and the southern hemisphere, consistent with previous regional studies.