ED2-BRAMS The Ecosystem-Demography Brazilian-Regional-Atmospheric-Modeling System
The ED2-BRAMS modeling system is the synthesis of two independant physically based environmental models. The Ecosystem Demography model (ED) was concieved as a stand-alone ecologic model which statistically approximates the dynamics of individual vegetation canopy "gaps"; achieved through a Size Age Structured approximation. The SAS approximation enables the features of growth, mortality, disturbance and competition to be expressed via physically cohesive and consistent patches of earth, each with a unique history. Yet unlike gap models, statistical approximations enable the simulation of hunreds to thousands of sites of interest over yearly, decadal and centenial time scales. In its second generation release, ED2 incorporated fast time scale processes of moisture and heat fluxes. The model has unique strengths in its ability to represent a vertical canopy structure and associated inter-species competition for resources including light, nutrients and moisture. The Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (BRAMS) is a specially developed variant of the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System. BRAMS is capable of simulating atmospheric dynamics at sub-kilometer resolution up to regional scales.
The Bras group has been working in cooperation with the Moorcroft group of Harvard University to create a coupling of the BRAMS and ED2 models. In essence, the two coevolve by providing each other with boundary conditions at synchronous time-steps. BRAMS provides ED2 with surface meteorlogical conditions including precipitation, radiation, winds and temperature; while ED2 provides the atmospheric model with upwelling radiation information as well as turbulent fluxes of heat, momentum and mass.
The ED2-BRAMS model, now in a post-development phase, serves to investigate how landscape disturbances influence the coevolution of vegetation and regional climate. Under a coinvestigation of the Bras and Moorcroft groups through the NSF grant, "Is Deforestation Changing the Hydrologic Climate and Vegetation Dynamics of the Amazon?", the ED2-BRAMS is being applied to the dense tropical conditions of the Amazon . The ED2-BRAMS coupled model probes the linkages, thresholds and relationships between realistic forecasts of tropical deforestation and the resulting shifts in climate signatures and land-surface energy/mass partitioning.
Relevant References and Links
[1] ATMET, Atmospheric Meteorological and Environmental Technologies
[2] Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System
[3] Moorcroft Laboratory, Harvard University