Scholarly record
MODELING OF RANGELAND ECOSYSTEMS IN NORTHERN JORDAN
Abstract
Grasslands is globally important vegetation type for providing feed resources for grazing animals. An improved understanding of the factors affecting the long-term productivity of the ecosystems will be beneficial, as well as to developing a better understanding of the role these ecosystems play in global environmental change. Arid and semi-arid Mediterranean grasslands provide valuable forage for grazing animals in the eastern part of the Mediterranean area and have been subjected to long-term unsustainable grazing practices, leading to degeneration of productivity and impacts plant community structure. The present study aimed to discover the validity of using Phytomass Growth Simulator Model (Phygrow) to simulate arid grassland ecosystems. The purpose is to build a Phygrow simulation model that can accurately estimate important eco-hydrological processes in arid grassland ecosystems. The weather parameter was taken from the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Important vegetation parameters and other key processes were simulated during the period 1981-2021 using the Phygrow model. The simulation was conducted for a grassland community within the Jordan University of Science and Technology JUST Campus. The model was able to reproduce all the general trends found in the study area, where peak growth is reached during the spring and ceased during the summer for annual spring growing species. The model has been successfully able to simulate leaf area index, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, leaf water storage, water stress, and temperature stress from 1981 to 2021.
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References13
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