| 30 | 30 | Age classes were introduced to better handle heterogeneity at the landscape level. The feature allows us to distinguish between different successional stages of the same PFT. Age classes are independent of the number of diameter classes. Using age classes adds a lot of details in both the biophysics and the biogeochemistry following natural disturbances, forest management and land cover change. If half of a grassland is afforested with a PFT that already exists in the pixel, previous versions of ORCHIDEE will combine this newly forest land and the existing forest in a single PFT. This will result in a low albedo, a high roughness, ... When age classes are used, the newly afforested and the existing forest will end up in separate PFTs. One will have a high albedo, the other a low, ... |
