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Evaluating simplifications used in regional applications of the SAFE and MAKEDEP models

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Author

Summary, in English

The importance of different additional simplifications used when moving from single site applications to regional applications of the SAFE and MAKEDEP models was studied. The SAFE model is a dynamic soil chemistry model, which apart from physical and chemical soil parameters also needs the historic evolution of atmospheric deposition and nutrient uptake to simulate the effects of acidic deposition on the chemical status of forest soils. The historic evolution of atmospheric deposition and nutrient uptake are reconstructed by the MAKEDEP model, using information on current deposition and nutrients status together with general deposition trends. Additional simplifica- tions are enforced by limitations in available regional data sets and the costs involved in completing regional data sets. The simplifications studied here are the same as those used in an actual regional application to Scania, southern Sweden: (1) Use of default values for certain soil parameters such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and soil bulk density; (2) Use of general depth trends to extrapolate soil parameters, such as mineralogy and surface area, measured for one soil layer to the other three soil layers considered in the SAFE model application; (3) Use of a simplified version of MAKEDEP, where some of the key feedbacks, such as the effects of a growing canopy on dry deposition rates have been removed in order to limit the input data needed to run the MAKEDEP model. The models where applied to two well documented sites, Solling, Germany and Rothamsted, UK. Model results using the above simplifications and subsets thereof were compared with soil chemistry measurements and model results based on previously published single-site applications for the two sites. The study shows that the trends and the present day values of pH and base cation concentration are reproduced fairly well even when all of the simplifications are used. In order to increase the reliability of the regional applications, however, the non-simplified version of MAKEDEP should be used rather than the simplified version. Regional data sets of standing biomass and nutrient contents are therefore needed.

Publishing year

1998

Language

English

Pages

265-277

Publication/Series

Ecological Modelling

Volume

107

Issue

2-3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Chemical Engineering

Keywords

  • Soil chemistry
  • Acidification
  • Dynamic modeling
  • Uncertainty

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0304-3800