The MAPSS model simulates the potential natural vegetation that could exist on any upland site in the world under present, past, or future climate change. It operates on the fundamental principal that ecosystems will tend to maximize the leaf area that can be supported at a site by available soil moisture or energy. The model has been adapted to the landscape scale, providing a single ecosystem simulation paradigm applicable to a full range of scales from landscape (watershed) to global.
MAPSS is fully integrated with a continentally calibrated hydrologic model, linking hydrologic and vegetation processes, and has been validated over the globe. Primary feature algorithms are included for:
- formation and melt of snow,
- interception and evaporation of rainfall,
- infiltration and percolation of rainfall and snowmelt through three soil layers,
- runoff,
- transpiration based on LAI and stomatal conductance,
- biophysical 'rules' for leaf form and phenology,
- iterative calculation of LAI, and
- assembly rules for vegetation classification.
To access the MAPSS model, please visit our Biogeochemical Model Archive web page and select it from the ORNL NASA DAAC's "See list of models" link.