MC1: a dynamic vegetation model for estimating the distribution of vegetation and associated carbon, nutrients, and water - technical documentation.

Assessments of vegetation response to climate change have generally been made only
by equilibrium vegetation models that predict vegetation composition under steady-state
conditions. These models do not simulate either ecosystem biogeochemical processes
or changes in ecosystem structure that may, in turn, act as feedbacks in determining
the dynamics of vegetation change. MC1 is a new dynamic global vegetation model
created to assess potential impacts of global climate change on ecosystem structure
and function at a wide range of spatial scales from landscape to global. This new tool
allows us to incorporate transient dynamics and make real time predictions about the
patterns of ecological change. MC1 was created by combining physiologically based
biogeographic rules defined in the MAPSS model with a modified version of the
biogeochemical model, CENTURY. MC1 also includes a fire module, MCFIRE, that
mechanistically simulates the occurrence and impacts of fire events.