GEOG0133 Terrestrial Carbon: modelling and monitoring practical exercises

P Lewis & J Gómez-Dans

Running the practicals

You can run the practicals directly online, thanks to the Binder infrastructure. Here's a link to the whole repository, and individual practicals will be linked below.

Practical 1

The material for the first practical session comes in two parts: Simple Earth-like System Models and Daisy World.

Practical 1a: Simple Earth-like System Models

In the first part, we explore some basic energy balance physics, relating input shortwave radiation and planetary albedo to temperature.

Practical 1b: Daisy World

In the second part, we add 'life' to our energy balance model to achieve Daisy World and use this to explore some Earth system concepts.

Practical 2: Photosynthesis modelling

A practical where the Farquhar approach to photosynthesis in vegetation is used to explore how vegetation is modelled in typical dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). The practical allows you to understand (some of) the limits to photosynthetic activity in vegetation, as well as explore the role of plant functional types (PFTs) in controlling photosynthesis. The final aim is to think how this basic leaf-level model can form the basis of a vegetation carbon model.

Practical 3: Phenology

Phenology is the study of recurrent natural phenomena. In this practical, you will try to develop models for vegetation phenology based on observations of plant "greenness" derived from satellite data, as well as abiotic controls (mostly temperature!).

Practical 4: Fire

Fire has a vital role in Earth system Carbon dynamics, and also has a large footprint in atmospheric Carbon signal. Here, we explotre how we measure fire from EO and estimate fire emissions.