Activity conducted at EMF between 01/01/2023 and 31/05/2023

Basic support activity

• Programming support: O. Boet, L. da Sois, O. Binks, F. d’Adamo
• Data management support: G. Rigola, P. Soler
• Statistical support: J. De la Casa, A. Daiyoub, A. Zango, A. Jolivet, A. Vilà, I. Filella, O. Lapiedra
• Modelling support: S. Silvestre, I. Hernández, J.M. Espelta, J. Vayreda, M. Móstiga

Participation in research projects

• WILDE (EU - Researchers: J.M. Espelta, L. Brotons): Project kick-off meeting (https://www.wilde-project.eu/)
• RESONATE (EU - Researchers: J. Martínez, F. Lloret, J.M. Espelta): Assisting in the use of MEDFATE for the evaluation of forest ecosystem services.
• FORGENIUS (EU - Researchers: M. Mencuccini): Workshop on parameterization of process-based models.
• BOMFORES (Spain - IP: M. De Cáceres): Design of new processes and development of model initialisation routines.
• COGBUFFER (Spain, IP: D. Sol): Modeling how decision-making affects population persistence in Corvus monedula.
• CARDIMED (EU – Researchers: P. Andrés): Modeling and evaluation of NBS for climate-change adaptation, sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in the Mediterranean area.

Participation in knowledge transfer projects

• Contracte programa / Oficina Catalana de Canvi Climàtic (Researchers: J. Vayreda, M. Banqué): Preparation of simulation framework for forest projections including management scenarios.
• WWF / OECC (Researchers: E. Doblas, J. Vayreda, M. Banqué): Final report including the projection of forest dynamics over Spain and the evaluation of C sequestration.

Network building

• Workshop on process-based modelling (parameterization) with researchers from INRAE, under the umbrella of FORGENIUS EU project. 6-9th March.
• Visit of Etienne Tourigny and Isabel Martinez Cano, from Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) with the aim to explore potential collaborations. 18th April.
• Meeting with Maria González (UPV), Mario Morales (U. Zaragoza) and Daniel Caviedes (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Deutschland) to explore the possibility to couple MEDFATE with the hydrological model SERGHEI (https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/16/977/2023/). 16th March.

Training & mentoring

Courses taught:

• Basic R (Victor/Roberto, 16h, Watering Talents/CREAF)

Mentoring:

• J. Dávila (Ph. Student)

Teaching:

• Ecología Forestal, explicación y uso del Laboratori Forestal Catalá (UAB, 1h, Víctor)
• Estudio de Casos en Biología Ambiental, acceso a bases de datos de biodiversidad con R (UAB, 1h, Víctor)

Model development

Design and implementation:

• Coupling of SurEau-Ecos hydraulic model (https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5593-2022) into MEDFATE.
• Design and implementation of resprouting and fire effects on foliage, buds and cambium (i.e. fire severity).

Parameterization:

• Development of model initialization routines from different national forest inventories (Spain, France, EEUU)
• Implementation of a routine by Arsène Druel (INRAE) to estimate soil total available water for forest stands, following an ecohydrological hypothesis.

Evaluation:

• Comparison of leaf area index (LAI) estimates derived from leaf biomass allometries vs. remote sensing LAI estimates at the European level.

New software & updates

• New version of package meteoland (v.2.0.0) released on CRAN
• New version of package medfate (v. 2.9.3) released on CRAN
• New version of package meteospain (v. 0.1.2) released on CRAN
• New version of package sapfluxnetr (v. 0.1.4) released on CRAN

New datasets in the EMF catalog

External datasets:

• ClimPlant v1.2 [https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13303]: Realized climatic niches of vascular plants in European forest understoreys.
• Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) [https://www.fia.fs.usda.gov/]: The FIA program delivers current, consistent, and credible information about the status of the United States’ forests.
• Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) [https://glonaf.org/]: GloNAF (Global Naturalized Alien Flora) is a living database project about naturalized alien plant species and became a synonym for many related projects dealing with all kinds of scientific and policy relevant questions and studies about alien species (also other taxa) and related data.

CREAF datasets:

• Long-term hydrological and geochemical datasets (Montseny) [Anna Ávila; https://zenodo.org/record/7228249]: Two long-term datasets on the hydrology and hydrochemistry of two small catchments totally or partially covered by holm oak (Quercus ilex) forests.

New models in the EMF catalog

• FATE-HD [https://leca-dev.github.io/RFate/index.html]: FATE is a spatially and temporally explicit vegetation model. It uses plant functional groups (PFG) and integrates important mechanisms driving vegetation dynamics, structure and diversity, such as demographic cycle, obviously, but also seeds dispersal, abiotic filtering or biotic interactions (through the competition for resources like light availability or soil nutrient availability).

Publications developing/using EMF tools

• De Cáceres M, Molowny-Horas R, Cabon A, Martínez-Vilalta J, Mencuccini M, García-Valdés R, Nadal-Sala D, Sabaté S, Martin-StPaul N, Morin X, D’Adamo F, Batllori E, Améztegui A (in press). MEDFATE 2.9.3: A trait-enabled model to simulate Mediterranean forest function and dynamics at regional scales. Geoscientific Model Development

Publications from other collaborations

• Casals P, Gabriel E, De Cáceres M, Ríos AI, Castro X (in press). Composition and structure of Mediterranean shrublands for fuel characterization. Annals of Forest Science.
• Tuomi C, De Cáceres M, Grall J, Boyé A, Thiebaut É, Maguer M, Le Garrec V, Broudin C, Houbin, C, Gauthier O (2023). Long-term coastal macrobenthic Community Trajectory Analysis reveals habitat-dependent stability patterns. Ecography: e06489 (10.1111/ecog.06489).
• Bachofen C, Poyatos R, Flo V, Martínez-Vilalta J, Mencuccini M, Granda V, Grossiord C (2023). Stand structure of Central European forests matters more than climate for transpiration sensitivity to VPD. Journal of Applied Ecology (10.1111/1365-2664.14383)

EMF online impact

(Online statistics for EMF and LFC between 01/03/2023 and 23/05/2023)

Laboratori Forestal Català (LFC):

• Stats: 185 visits / 5:46 mins average visit duration / 650 page views
• Apps most used: IFN App / Allometrapp / SiteDrought App

EMF Web:

• Stats: 423 visits / 5:02 mins average visit duration / 1625 page views
• Pages most visited: External models / CREAF models / EMF software