Terrestrial (land surface) modelling systems

“Land surface models (LSMs) are numerical models that solve the coupled fluxes of water, energy, and carbon between the land surface and atmosphere, within a context of direct and indirect human forcings and ecological dynamics. Land surface models have expanded from their initial simple biophysical configurations to include representations of soil moisture dynamics, stomatal functioning, land surface heterogeneity, surface hydrological processes, plant and soil carbon cycling, dynamic vegetation distributions, fire, urban environments, land cover and management, nitrogen cycling and crops and latterly plant demographic processes, phosphorus cycling, and plant hydraulics.” (Fischer and Koven, 2020)

Sources

Fisher, R. A. and Koven, C. D. Perspectives on the Future of Land Surface Models and the Challenges of Representing Complex Terrestrial Systems. Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems, 12 (4), (2020): 1-24. 10.1029/2018MS001453.