Increasing the spatial and temporal impact of ecological research: A roadmap for integrating a novel terrestrial process into an Earth system model

作者：Emily Kyker‐Snowman, Danica Lombardozzi, Gordon B. Bonan, Susan J. Cheng, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Serita D. Frey, Elin M. Jacobs, Risa McNellis, Joshua M. Rady, Nicholas G. Smith, R. Quinn Thomas, William R. Wieder, A. Stuart Grandy · 发表于：Global Change Biology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1111/gcb.15894 · 被引用次数：66 · 研究领域：Climate variability and models、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics

Terrestrial ecosystems regulate Earth's climate through water, energy, and biogeochemical transformations. Despite a key role in regulating the Earth system, terrestrial ecology has historically been underrepresented in the Earth system models (ESMs) that are used to understand and project global environmental change. Ecology and Earth system modeling must be integrated for scientists to fully comprehend the role of ecological systems in driving and responding to global change. Ecological insights can improve ESM realism and reduce process uncertainty, while ESMs offer ecologists an opportunity to broadly test ecological theory and increase the impact of their work by scaling concepts through time and space. Despite this mutualism, meaningfully integrating the two remains a persistent challenge, in part because of logistical obstacles in translating processes into mathematical formulas and identifying ways to integrate new theories and code into large, complex model structures. To help overcome this interdisciplinary challenge, we present a framework consisting of a series of interconnected stages for integrating a new ecological process or insight into an ESM. First, we highlight the multiple ways that ecological observations and modeling iteratively strengthen one another, dispelling the illusion that the ecologist's role ends with initial provision of data. Second, we show that many valuable insights, products, and theoretical developments are produced through sustained in...