Using Plant Functional Groups as a Strategy for Modeling Carbon Dynamics in Grassland Ecosystems

Abstract

This paper argues for the use of plant functional groups as an important strategy for modeling carbon dynamics in grasslands. Carbon sequestration is paramount to help reduce climate change globally, and grasslands, representing 40% of all terrestrial area, can serve as primary locations of sequestration if optimal management strategies can be realized. Currently, the majority of research occurs in the field, which can take years to find what an optimal carbon sequestration strategy looks like, but modeling ecosystems offers an opportunity of realize long term management strategies for a particular locations. Current ecosystem modeling strategies tend to focus on agricultural applications or are model grassland for large regions, like Europe, or globally. Models tend to use just a few species, or only C3/C4 groups, as opposed to using C3 and C4 grasses as separate groups as well as forbs and legumes in their model. This paper lays out a justification for using the four groups in modeling in order to optimize simulation models while accounting for the importance of diversity in modeling strategies.