Deakin University
Browse

Sensitivity in ecological modeling: from local to regional scales

chapter
posted on 2017-01-01, 00:00 authored by X Song, Brett BryanBrett Bryan, L Gao, G Zhao, M Dong
Global climate change and underlying feedbacks of the terrestrial ecosystems constitute one of the most challenging environmental issues of the present age. The endeavor to understand the complex interactions between climate system and land surface has stimulated active researches in terrestrial ecological modeling. It has been generally acknowledged that only by adopting a systematic approach and taking the land surface components as a whole by modeling strategies can many pressing environmental and climate change problems be fully understood theoretically at relative large, even global scales. With the fast-growing model complexity, the role of global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is more prominent in model correctness validation and parameter calibration. In this chapter, we discuss some typical applications of GSA in ecological modeling, e.g., parameter sensitivity analysis including its temporal feature, spatial application of social-ecological modeling with scenario settings, and specific computing strategies to cope with the huge amount of model runs in GSA. We also discuss the sensitivity of social-ecological modeling to land map errors. We conclude that GSA is an essential step in ecological modeling development and calibration, but care should be taken when extrapolating GSA results to different regions in model simulation due to its strong reliance on model forcing data.

History

Chapter number

19

Pagination

381-396

ISBN-13

9780128030318

Language

eng

Publication classification

B Book chapter, B1.1 Book chapter

Copyright notice

2017, Elsevier

Extent

20

Editor/Contributor(s)

Petropoulos G, Srivastava PK

Publisher

Elsevier

Place of publication

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Title of book

Sensitivity analysis in earth observation modelling