Vegetation Type for the Conterminous United States Simulated for CGCM1 data for the years 2070-2099 by the MC1 Model (VEMAP version)

This is a mode vegetation map resulting from annual MC1 model vegetation output. It is the vegetation class that occurs with greatest frequency for the years 2070-2099.

MC1 is a dynamic vegetation model for estimating the distribution of vegetation and associated ecosystem fluxes of carbon, nutrients, and water. It was created to assess the potential impacts of global climate change on ecosystem structure and function at a wide range of spatial scales from landscape to global. The model incorporates transient dynamics to make predictions about the patterns of ecological change. MC1 was created by combining physiologically based biogeographic rules defined in the MAPSS model with a modified version of the biogeochemical model, CENTURY. MC1 includes a fire module, MCFIRE, that mechanistically simulates the occurrence and impacts of fire events. Climate input data sources for this particular run include the Climatic Research Unit (CRU TS 2.0), the Canadian Forest Service, and Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM).

 Input data for the MC1 model (climate and soil) were obtained from the Vegetation-Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP). VEMAP was a large, collaborative, multi-agency program to simulate and understand ecosystem dynamics for the continental United States.  The project involved the development of common data sets for model input including a high-resolution topographically-adjusted climate history of the United States from 1895-1993 on a 0.5º grid, with soils and vegetation cover.  The climate data set was developed at NCAR by Tim Kittel (EDAS) and Nan Rosenbloom (EDAS), with collaboration from Oregon State University (Chris Daly) and NOAA's National Climate Data Center (NCDC ).  Information for the VEMAP project can be obtained from http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/vemap/objectives.html.