GMD Geoscientific Model Development GMD Geosci. Model Dev. 1991-9603 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/gmd-4-1019-2011 Validation of modelled forest biomass in Germany using BETHY/DLR Tum M. 1 Buchhorn M. 2 3 Günther K. P. 1 Haller B. C. 4 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Deutsches Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum (DFD), 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany German Biomass Research Centre (DBFZ), Department Bioenergy Systems, Torgauer Strasse 116, 04347 Leipzig, Germany Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Division: Geoscience and Periglacial Research, Telegrafenberg A43, 14473 Potsdam, Germany Department of Biology and Redpath Museum, McGill University, 859 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6, Canada 18 11 2011 4 4 1019 1034 Copyright: © 2011 M. Tum et al. 2011 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/4/1019/2011/gmd-4-1019-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/4/1019/2011/gmd-4-1019-2011.pdf

We present a new approach to the validation of modelled forest Net Primary Productivity (NPP), using empirical data on the mean annual increment, or MAI, in above-ground forest stock. The soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transfer model BETHY/DLR is used, with a particular focus on a detailed parameterization of photosynthesis, to estimate the NPP of forest areas in Germany, driven by remote sensing data from VEGETATION, meteorological data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and additional tree coverage information from the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Field (VCF). The output of BETHY/DLR, Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), is converted to NPP by subtracting the cumulative plant maintenance and growth respiration, and then validated against MAI data that was calculated from German forestry inventories. Validation is conducted for 2000 and 2001 by converting modelled NPP to stem volume at a regional level. Our analysis shows that the presented method fills an important gap in methods for validating modelled NPP against empirically derived data. In addition, we examine theoretical energy potentials calculated from the modelled and validated NPP, assuming sustainable forest management and using species-specific tree heating values. Such estimated forest biomass energy potentials play an important role in the sustainable energy debate.

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