PnET-Succession v 5.1: Comprehensive description of an ecophysiological succession extension within the LANDIS-II forest landscape model

Abstract

The LANDIS-II forest landscape model simulates the successional response of forests to disturbances at landscape scale (10⁴ – 10⁸ ha). PnET-Succession is one of several succession extensions to LANDIS-II, and it is among the more mechanistic suc-cession extensions. To increase its robustness for novel abiotic conditions and species assemblages, PnET-Succession includes many algorithms from the PnET-II forest ecophysiology model, which rely heavily on first principles of physiology, chemistry and physics. In the decade since PnET-Succession was originally coded, code revisions have accumulated to correct errors in logic, resolve discrepancies between PnET-II and PnET-Succession, and new code was added to enhance model capabilities. Consequently, current code is greatly altered compared to the original version, and the original description of the model in the literature no longer reflects the current model. In this paper, we describe in some detail the algorithms of PnET-Succession v5.1 to update the literature on PnET-Succession for greater transparency and as an easy-to-read companion to the open-source code. We conclude with ideas for future development of PnET-Succession and provide some examples of its use to explore likely forest landscape dynamics under novel (not yet empirically observed) conditions.

Citation

Gustafson, Eric J.; Miranda, Brian R.; Sturtevant, Brian R.; Zhou, Zaixing. 2023. PnET-Succession v 5.1: Comprehensive description of an ecophysiological succession extension within the LANDIS-II forest landscape model. Raleigh,NC: The LANDIS-II Foundation. Available at https://github.com/LANDIS-II-Foundation/Foundation-Publications/blob/main/Description%20of%20PnET-Succession%20v5.1.pdf.