Using the Lund-Potsdam-Jena Model to Understand the Different Responses of Three Woody Plants to Land Use in China

In this study, the approach of conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation related to initial perturbation (CNOP-I) was employed to investigate the maximum variations in plant amount for three main woody plants (a temperate broadleaved evergreen, a temperate broadleaved summergreen, and a boreal needleleaved evergreen) in China. The investigation was conducted within a certain range of land use intensity using a state-of-the-art Lund-Potsdam-Jena dynamic global vegetation model (LPJ DGVM). CNOP-I represents a class of deforestation and can be considered a type of land use with respect to the initial perturbation. When deforestation denoted by the CNOP-I has the same intensity for all three plants, the variation in plant amount of the boreal needleleaved evergreen in northern China is greater than the variation in plant amount of both the temperate broadleaved evergreen and temperate broadleaved summergreen in southern China. As deforestation intensity increases, the plant amount variation in the three woody plant functional types carbon changes, in a nonlinear fashion. The impact of land use on plant functional types is minor because the interaction between climate condition and land use is not considered in the LPJ model. Finally, the different impacts of deforestation on net primary production of the three plant functional types were analyzed by modeling gross primary production and autotrophic respiration. Our results suggest that the CNOP-I approach is a useful tool for exploring the nonlinear and different responses of terrestrial ecosystems to land use.