United States Department of Agriculture

Forest 

Service

Pacific Northwest 

Research Station

General Technical Report

PNW-GTR-904

November 

2015

The Dynamic General Vegetation 

Model MC1 Over the United States and 

Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution: 

Model Inputs and Outputs 

Raymond J. Drapek, John B. Kim, and Ronald P. Neilson
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Authors

Raymond J. Drapek is a biologist and geographic information system specialist, and 

John B. Kim is a biological scientist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson 

Way, Corvallis, OR 97331-8550; Ronald P. Neilson is a professor (courtesy), Oregon 

State University, 1895 SW Whiteside Drive, Corvallis, OR 97333. 
Abstract

Drapek, Raymond J.; Kim, John B.; Neilson, Ronald P. 2015. The Dynamic 

General Vegetation Model MC1 over the United States and Canada at a 5-arcminute resolution: model inputs and outputs. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-904. 

Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest 

Research Station. 57 p.

Land managers need to include climate change in their decisionmaking, but the 

climate models that project future climates operate at spatial scales that are too 

coarse to be of direct use. To create a dataset more useful to managers, soil and 

historical climate were assembled for the United States and Canada at a 5-arcminute grid resolution. Nine CMIP3 future climate projections were downscaled to 

this grid and the MC1 dynamic global vegetation model was run over the historical 

and future climates. Climate variables included monthly mean temperature, precipitation, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and vapor pressure. Soil data 

included soil depth as well as percentages of sand, clay, and rockiness for three soil 

depths. Output variables included carbon pools and fluxes, fire variables, potential 

vegetation classes, and various water cycle variables. Climate and soil inputs as well 

as MC1 outputs are available publicly. 

Keywords: MC1, Dynamic Global Vegetation Model, climate change, carbon, 

fire, streamflow.
Summary

Land managers need to include climate change in their decisionmaking, but the climate models that project future climates operate at spatial scales that are too coarse 

to be of direct use. For this project, several alternative future climate scenarios 

were downscaled to a spatial scale that is more useful. Our goal for this project is 

to provide climate and soil inputs for a dynamic vegetation model and outputs from 

the model. A historical average climate dataset (1961–1990) was assembled to cover 

the United States (excluding Hawaii) and Canada at a 5-arc-minute grid resolution 

using 4-km data from the Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes 

Model (Daly et al. 2008) and data provided by Natural Resources Canada (McKenney et al. 2004, Price et al. 2004). Climate variables include monthly mean temperature, precipitation, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and vapor 

pressure. Temporal monthly historical climate data for the years 1901–2000 were 

produced using an anomaly approach with the abovementioned average climate as 

a baseline and with climate anomalies coming out of TS 2.0 data provided by the 

Climatic Research Unit (Mitchell et al. 2004). Future climate was also assembled 

using an anomaly approach with the same baseline climate as was used for the 

temporal historical climate. Future scenarios are a 3 by 3 combination of three 

General Circulation Models (GCMs) and three greenhouse gas (GHG) emission 

scenarios from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) (Nakicenovic 

et al. 2000). The GCMs used are MIROC 3.2 medres (Hasumi and Emori 2004), 

HadCM3 (Johns et al. 2003), and CSIRO Mk3.5 (Gordon et al. 2010), identified in 

this report as MIROC, HadCM3, and CSIRO, respectively. The SRES scenarios are 

A2, A1B, and B1. 

The soil data that were used include soil depth as well as percentages of sand, 

clay, and rockiness for three soil depths. Soil data were assembled from the Natural 

Resources Conservation Service State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) database 

(USDA NRCS 1994) and from the Canadian Soil Information System (MacDonald 

and Kloosterman 1984). The STATSGO data were gridded by Jeffrey S. Kern 

(Kern 1995). 

The MC1 model can potentially output more than 900 annual or monthly 

variables. For this dataset, we included 25 annual variables including 2 variables 

describing biogeography, 2 variables describing fire, 2 leaf area index variables, 12 

carbon stock variables, 4 carbon flux variables, and 3 hydrology variables. 

MC1 outputs of several variables were compared against benchmark data for 

past years. The MC1 historical vegetation class map has a Kappa of 0.46 when 

compared with aggregated Küchler (1964) data. MC1 aboveground vegetation 

carbon correlates with the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (Kellindorfer et al. 
2012) with an R2

 of 0.46 and tends to be 2200 g m-2 higher. Comparisons of MC1 

streamflow estimates versus three stream gages result in one stream gage from 

which MC1 values are consistently high, one from which MC1 values are low, and 

one from which MC1 values are low and high in roughly equal proportions. These 

comparisons yield R2 values of 0.33, 0.49, and 0.62, respectively. MC1 fire return 

intervals are generally outside of the range estimated by Leenhouts (1998) for various potential vegetation types, with MC1 fires tending to be less frequent through 

much of the Eastern United States and more frequent through much of the West. 

For 2071–2100, MC1 projects 33 to 51 percent of the land area changing in 

vegetation cover, with most of the changes happening in northern latitudes where 

large areas of tundra are replaced by forests. Increases in vegetation carbon and 

streamflow also are most pronounced in the far north. Biomass consumed by fire 

increases across much of the study domain for all nine future scenarios. For no 

location does a consistent decrease occur.
Contents

1 Introduction

2 Methods

2 The MC1 Model

3 Simulation Protocol

6 Model Inputs

6 Soil

8 EQ, Spinup, and Historical Climate

11 Future Climate

13 Bias and Error Correction and Gap Filling

17 Quality Control

17 Results

17 Climate

21 MC1 Historical Outputs

32 MC1 Future Outputs

42 Discussion

45 Acknowledgments

46 English Equivalents

46 References

54 Appendix 1: Description of the Data Files

55 Appendix 2: Obtaining Copies of the Data

56 Glossary
1

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Introduction

In this report, we describe the production of a dataset that includes input for running the MC1 dynamic vegetation model (Daly et al. 2000) as well as some of the 

output coming from the model. This dataset covers the United States (excluding 

Hawaii) and Canada with a 5-arc-minute grid resolution (approximately 8 km per 

grid-cell side at mid latitudes). This dataset is an updated version of a 5-arc-minute 

dataset that previously had been distributed widely without publication. Included 

are descriptions of how soil and historical climate input data were assembled and 

how future climate data were downscaled from coarse-scale general circulation 

model (GCM) output. Results from the MC1 model are examined for broad patterns, including changes to vegetation type, vegetation biomass, fire return interval, 

biomass consumed by fire, and streamflow.

The current dataset is the first fully vetted and documented dataset for MC1 

over North America at a 5-arc-minute grid resolution. Input and output files are 

available for general distribution. The MC1 code and parameters used are also 

available. The methods used to downscale the data are documented in this report. 

For this project, we downscaled nine future climate projections. These are a 

combination of three GCMs and three greenhouse gas (GHG) scenarios from the 

Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) (Navkicenovic et al. 2000). Our 

choice of GCM/SRES scenarios was intended to span the range of projected GHG 

levels as well as the range of GCM responses to GHG levels. The three GCMs 

chosen were MIROC 3.2 medres (mild and wetter), HadCM3 (warm and dry), and 

CSIRO Mk3.5 (hot and dry). The three SRES scenarios chosen were A2, A1B, and 

B1. Since the initiation of this project, new climate model results for new emissions 

scenarios have become available through the Coupled Model Intercomparison 

Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). The new generation of climate change scenarios (e.g., 

Representative Concentration Pathways RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) in use for CMIP5 

experiments were developed from SRES scenarios (IPCC WGII 2014, Moss et al. 

2010, Riahi et al. 2011, Van Vuuren et al. 2011). The SRES scenarios A2 and B1 

have comparable trajectories in terms of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2

) concentrations, radiative forcing, and mean surface temperatures, to RCP8.5 and RCP4.5 

scenarios, respectively (IPCC WGII 2014, c.f. Rogelj et al. 2012, Van Vuuren et al. 

2011). Therefore, we expect the general conclusions and broadly observed patterns 

to be comparable to MC1 simulations using RCP scenarios. 

Inputs and outputs are available for download. Appendix 1 describes the 

geographic region, the graticule, and data-file formats. Appendix 2 describes how 

to obtain copies of the data.
2

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Methods

The MC1 Model

The MC1 model is a dynamic vegetation model created to assess the impacts of 

global climate change on ecosystem structure and function at a wide range of 

spatial scales from landscape to global. The model consists of three linked modules 

(fig. 1): biogeography, biogeochemistry, and fire disturbance. The biogeographic 

module predicts the vegetation life forms (broadleaf/needleleaf, deciduous/evergreen, C3/C4) and classifies the vegetation into potential vegetation types (e.g., 

“Temperate Evergreen Needleleaf Forest”). The biogeochemical module simulates 

monthly carbon, nitrogen, and water dynamics. Aboveground and belowground 

processes are modeled in detail and include plant production, soil organic matter 

decomposition, and water and nutrient cycling. Parameterization of this module is 

based on the life-form composition of the ecosystems, which is updated annually 

by the biogeographic module. The fire module simulates the occurrence, behavior, 

and effects of severe fire. Allometric equations, keyed to the life-form composition 

supplied by the biogeographic module, are used to convert aboveground biomass to 

fuel classes. Fire effects (plant mortality and live and dead biomass consumption) 

are estimated as a function of simulated fire behavior (fire spread and fire line 

Figure 1—The three modules that the MC1 is composed of and the types of data that are passed 

among them.
3

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

intensity) and vegetation structure. Fire effects feed back to the biogeochemical 

module to adjust levels of various C and nutrient pools and alter vegetation structure. MC1 was originally introduced in Daly et al. (2000); a detailed description of 

the model can be found in Bachelet et al. (2001a). The MC1 model has been used for 

many purposes at several scales over many geographic domains (table 1). 

In MC1, CO2 levels affect plant production, potential evapotranspiration (PET), 

and carbon-to-nitrogen ratios (C:N). These are all adjusted using monotonically 

increasing and downward curved equations so that the adjustment is 1.0 at late-20thcentury CO2

 levels and increases for higher CO2 levels. The plant production, PET, 

and C:N adjustments rise to approximately 2.5, 2.2, and 1.9, respectively, for CO2

concentrations of 800 ppm. 

MC1 has undergone many revisions since its introduction. Revisions of MC1 

source code are archived at the MC1 DGVM users website (https://sites.google.com/

site/mc1dgvmusers/). For this project, we used the most recent version available 

at the inception of the project: a subbranch of Revision 165 called “LandCarbon.” 

It can be accessed from the lead author. This version derives from a Conservation 

Biology Institute project used to simulate carbon dynamics of the conterminous 

United States (http://databasin.org/groups/8d96fe463e514680a95c303acf532309). 

The most current LandCarbon project calibration at the time of the inception of this 

project was used. Of more than 900 possible annual and monthly output variables, 

we selected 25 key diagnostic annual variables to be shared. These variables cover 

carbon and water cycles, fire, and biogeography (table 2). Variables were chosen 

through interactions with people who used the output for various purposes and 

objectives. This list of variables has lengthened as the number of clients with different objectives has increased. The more variables that are included in the output, the 

slower the model runs on the computer, so this list also results from compromises 

between the time spent running the model and desired information quantity.

Simulation Protocol

MC1 execution was divided into four phases: EQ, spinup, historical, and future. 

Each phase was run in sequence and required its own dataset. First, in the EQ 

phase, the MAPSS model (Neilson 1995) was run over an average monthly climate 

for 1961–1990 to calculate the initial distribution of vegetation types. Then the 

biogeochemistry module ran for a maximum of 3,000 years over the same average 

monthly climate. The exact number of years the model is run in the biogeochemistry phase of the EQ depends on how long it takes for the resistant soil carbon pool 

to reach a stable state. 
4

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Table 1—Examples of published studies that made use of the MC1 model

Citation Study Geographic domain and scale

Bachelet et al. 2001b MC1 results vs. MAPSS biogeography model Conterminous United States at 1⁄2-degree grid

Bachelet et al. 2003 MC1 results vs. LPJ dynamic global 

vegetation model

Conterminous United States at 1⁄2-degree grid

Lenihan et al. 2003 Vegetation changes, carbon, and fire under

two contrasting climate scenarios

California at 10-km grid

Bachelet et al. 2004 Carbon sequestration in six regions under 

future climate scenarios

Conterminous United States at 1⁄2-degree grid

Bachelet et al. 2005 Climate, fire, and ecosystem interactions in 

Alaska

Alaska at 1⁄2-degree grid

Gucinsky 2005 Climate change and natural resources 

management

Conterminous United States at 1⁄2-degree grid 

and California at 10-km grid

Galbraith et al. 2006 Biodiversity and adaptation under climate 

change

California at 10-km grid

Lenihan et al. 2006 Climate change assessment in California California at 10-km grid

Bachelet et al. 2008 Different input dataset effects on vegetation 

distribution and carbon budget

Conterminous United States at 1⁄2-degree grid

Doppelt et al. 2008 Preparing for climate change in the Rogue 

River basin

Rogue River basin, Oregon, at 5 arc-minutes

Lenihan et al. 2008 Impact of fire management, carbon dioxide 

(CO2) emissions, and plant CO2 response on 

ecosystems under future climates

Conterminous United States at 1⁄2-degree grid

Kueppers et al. 2009 Feedbacks of terrestrial vegetation change 

to climate

California at 10-km grid

Gonzalez et al. 2010 What areas of the globe are vulnerable under 

climate change and what areas are potential 

refugia

Global at 1⁄2-degree grid

Koopman et al. 2010 Projected future climate and ecological 

conditions in San Luis Obispo County, 

California

San Luis Obispo County, California, at 

5 arc-minutes

Halofsky et al. 2011 Climate change and vegetation management 

in the Olympic National Forest and Olympic 

National Park

Olympic Penninsula, Washington, at 

30 arc-seconds

McLachlan et al. 2011 Prairie chicken conservation Conterminous United States at 1⁄2 degree grid

Rogers et al. 2011 Impacts of climate change on fire regimes

and carbon stocks

Western two-thirds of Oregon and Washington at

30 arc-seconds 

Kerns et al. 2012 Climate-informed state and transition models Central Oregon at 30 arc seconds

Halofsky et al. 2013 Climate-informed state and transition models Central Oregon at 30 arc seconds
5

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Table 2—Variables that were output from the MC1 model

Variable type Variable name Description Units

Biogeography nb_zone Zone from global vegetation rules None

VTYPEyr Potential vegetation type None

Fire PART_BURNyr Fraction of cell burned None

bio_consume Carbon in biomass consumed by fire g C m-2

Leaf Area Index (LAI) max_tree Maximum tree LAI m

2

 leaf m-2 ground

max_grass Maximum grass LAI m

2

 leaf m-2 ground

Carbon Stock tslcx Total soil carbon g C m-2

C_SOMyr Soil organic matter g C m-2

C_ECOSYSyr Total ecosystem carbon g C m-2

max_rleavc Maximum monthly tree leaf carbon g C m-2

C_FORESTyr Live tree carbon g C m-2

treec Maximum total tree carbon g C m-2

aflivcx Maximum aboveground live tree carbon g C m-2

bflivcx Maximum belowground live tree carbon g C m-2

bdeadcx Maximum belowground dead carbon (litter, not soil) g C m-2

adeadcx Maximum aboveground dead carbon g C m-2

grassc Maximum total grass carbon g C m-2

C_VEGyr Maximum annual total vegetation carbon g C m-2

Carbon Flux nppx Net primary production g C m-2 yr

-1

rspx Heterotrophic respiration g C m-2 yr

-1

nepx Net ecosystem production g C m-2 yr

-1

NBPyr Net biome production g C m-2 yr

-1

Water AETyr Actual evapotranspiration mm H2O yr-1

PETyr Potential evaporation mm H2O yr-1

STREAMFLOWyr Streamflow (= stormflow + baseflow + runoff) mm H2O yr-1

In the spinup phase, MC1 ran for 2,000 years with detrended transient historical 

climate data. These data retain the seasonal and interannual variability observed in 

the historical data without the century-long trend. The detrended historical climate 

dataset was created by calculating an anomaly for each month relative to a 30-year 

moving average centered at that month. This anomaly was then added to the average 1901–1915 climate values. Detrended precipitation was cropped to ensure that 

no negative precipitation values resulted. The spinup phase established a seasonally 

and annually varying but stable fire regime. 

In the third and fourth phases, the historical and future phases, respectively, 

MC1 was run with historical and future climate data to simulate historical and 
6

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

future responses of vegetation to climate conditions. The processes we used to create appropriate climate datasets for all the phases are described in detail below. 

Model Inputs

Soil

MC1 soil data requirements include 11 variables: percentages of sand, clay, and 

rock for three soil depths; overall bulk density; and mineral depth. The three soil 

depths used by MC1 were surface (0 to 50 cm), intermediate (50 to 150 cm), and 

deep (>150 cm). Because the soil dataset for this project covered a large area over 

two countries, soil datasets from three sources had to be combined.

Gridded soil data for Alaska were derived from STATSGO (USDA NRCS 

1979) by Jeff Kern using approaches described in Kern (1995). Kern’s data are 

gridded at a 1-km grid resolution and projected using an Albers conical equal area 

projection. Kern’s gridded Alaska data contain the 11 variables that we required for 

this project. We converted these data to our 5-arc-minute geographic coordinate 

system. This was done using the “Project Raster” tool in ArcMap 10.0 using the 

“nearest” resampling technique.

Soil data for Canada came from the Canada Soil Information System (CanSIS) 

(MacDonald and Kloosterman 1984). To create our 11-variable gridded data, we had 

to combine data from many files. The CanSIS data came as multiple ASCII grids, 

one for each combination of mineral soil component, variable (e.g., percentage of 

sand), and vertical soil section. For each soil depth layer, we obtained data from 

each of one to four mineral components. These values were then used to calculate 

a weighted average by using the area per mineral component to do the weighting. 

Once the weighting was completed, we modified values to account for differences 

in the mineral depths of our source dataset versus our target. The CanSIS data 

were provided at depths of 0 to 50, 50 to 100, and 100 to 150 cm, whereas MC1 

requires soil data in layers 0 to 50, 50 to 150, and >150 cm. Weighted averaging by 

depth was done using depth overlaps of the target and source datasets as weighting 

factors. 

The CanSIS data came as 10-km gridded data in a NAD83 Canada Atlas 

Lambert projection. Once we had assembled grids for our 11 variables as described 

above, we needed to convert the data from the 10-km projected coordinate system 

to our 5-arc-minute geographic coordinate system. This was done using the “Project Raster” tool in ArcMap 10.0 using the “nearest” resampling technique. 

Gridded soil data for the conterminous United States were derived from 

STATSGO (USDA NRCS 1979) by Jeff Kern using approaches described in Kern 
7

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

(1995). Kern’s data for the conterminous United States are gridded over a geographic 

coordinate system at a 30-arc-second grid resolution. Kern’s gridded data contain the 

11 variables that we required for this project. We converted these data to our 5-arcminute geographic coordinate system using the “Project Raster” tool in ArcMap 10.0 

using the “majority” resampling technique. 

A challenge in creating the soil data was that the source datasets had “no 

soil” values for locations currently covered by either ice sheets or peatlands. The 

distinction between peat and ice was not coded in the source data. If all runs of 

the MC1 model were to be done in current times, it would be appropriate to simply 

mask out those grid cells. But for runs of the model under future scenarios, we had 

to consider the possibility that ice fields would melt and peatlands would dry up. 

We decided that with the current version of MC1 (and for the next few foreseeable 

versions) we would not have the ability to simulate peatlands, but we could run the 

model over melted ice fields. Therefore, the two cell types had to be distinguished, 

the peatlands had to be masked out, and some defendable value for the soil attributes had to be found for ice-field locations. To that end, we used the Harmonized 

World Soil Database (HWSD) (Nachtergaele et al. 2009) both to distinguish 

peatlands from ice fields and to fill in soil attributes for ice field locations. Using 

topsoil organic carbon values from the HWSD data, we identified grid cells that 

were in the top 10th percentile and used them to create a peatland mask. Grid-cell 

sizes for this mask were very coarse relative to our CanSIS and STATSGO sources, 

and there was not always a complete match-up in values. For example, there were 

CanSIS grid cells that were too far south and low in elevation to be ice fields, so 

they had to be peatlands, but were not tagged as such in the HWSD mask. For this 

reason, we could not use the peatland mask directly but instead used it to conceptually assemble some rules with which we could make the distinction between 

peatlands and ice fields over our 5-arc-minute grid. Those rules are:

1. All Alaska peat/ice grid cells are ice.

2. All peat/ice grid cells for states, provinces, and territories east of the Rocky 

Mountains are peat, with an exception of the territory of Nunavut.

3. In Nunavut, all peat/ice grid cells on Victoria Island, the Queen Elizabeth 

Islands, and Baffin Island are ice; otherwise they are peat lands.

4. All peat/ice grid cells in the Western States of the conterminous United 

States (Rocky Mountains and westward) are lakes (e.g., Great Salt Lake) 

and should be removed from the land mask. (For this rule we also consulted 

standard land cover maps.)

5. All peat/ice grid cells in British Columbia east of the Rocky Mountains are 

peatlands, and all to the west are ice.
8

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

6. All peat/ice grid cells in the interior Yukon Territory are peatlands, and all 

in the coastal mountains are ice. 

Note that these rules were not used to describe all locations within these 

regions. For example, we acknowledge that there are peatlands in Alaska, but at the 

5-arc-minute resolution these rules worked reasonably well. Because the HWSD 

data are relatively coarse, the soil values have rectangular geographic patterns in 

the ice-field grid cells, but we concluded that this artifact was preferable to “no 

data” or infilling by extrapolating from surrounding grid cells. The geographic patterns in soil bulk density values stemming from the HWSD data can be seen in the 

Brooks Range in northern Alaska (fig. 2). The white grid cells seen in the interior 

Canadian provinces were excluded from simulation. These masked cells included 

both large lakes and peatlands.

Soil attributes in CanSis for Canada differ from those in STATSGO for the 

United States. Soil bulk density values in Canada were systematically higher than 

those in the United States (fig. 2). The difference is most apparent at the southern 

border of British Columbia. The direct effects of these systematic differences are 

observed in MC1 outputs. A search of the literature has revealed no comparative 

studies of these soil datasets, and it was beyond the scope of this project to investigate and address the systematic differences in attributes of the two soil datasets.

EQ, Spinup, and Historical Climate

As was noted in the “Simulation Protocol” section of this report, MC1 execution is 

divided into four phases: EQ, spinup, historical, and future. However, it is easiest to 

describe the climate datasets upon which these phases are run in a different order. 

For example, although the spinup data precede historical in the flow of MC1 execution, the spinup dataset itself is derived from the historical dataset. Therefore, the 

description of these datasets and their derivation will be done in a different order 

from that which occurs in an MC1 model run. Also, to describe how our historical 

climate dataset was assembled, we need to make the distinction between a transient 

and a baseline climate. For our purposes, a transient climate is a monthly gridded 

climate that changes from year to year, e.g., a 1,200-month dataset that covers all 

the months for the years 1901–2000. A “baseline” climate is a 12-month average 

for some set of years, e.g., the average climate for 1961–1990. From our sources we 

did not have a transient historical climate at the desired grid resolution, but we had 

baseline climates (1961–1990) for several regions across Canada and the United 

States at the desired grid resolution, and we had transient global climate data for the 

years 1901–2000 at a coarser grid resolution. Transient climate was provided by the 

Climatic Research Unit (CRU TS 2.0) (Mitchell et al. 2004).
9

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Figure 2—Assembled map of bulk density (grams per cubic meter). Canada grids of the map are derived from the Canada Soil Information System, and grids within the United States are derived from the State Soil Geographic dataset. A few grid cells that are currently 

ice-covered were derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database. 

All of our climate data are ultimately derived from the 1961–1990 baseline 

climates. The baseline climate was created by integrating data from multiple 

sources (table 3). The Canadian Forest Service provided data for the entire study 

domain, but gridded using ANUSPLIN ( Price et al. 2004). ANUSPLIN is a good 

approach for relatively flat terrain, but regions having significant terrain features, 

coastal effects, rain shadows, or cold air drainages and inversions are better handled 

by a system such as [Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes 

Model] PRISM (Daly 2006, 2008). For consistency, we would have used PRISM 

data for the entire dataset, but we did not have access to PRISM data for eastern 

Canada. For this project, PRISM data were used for all other portions of the domain 

(western Canada, Alaska, and the conterminous United States). 

The Canadian Forest Service data came divided into regions that needed to 

be merged: Yukon and Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, Prairie 

Provinces, Ontario, and the Quebec/Newfoundland and Labrador/Maritime provinces. The PRISM data files all came as 2.5-arc-minute grids and were regridded 

to the 5-arc-minute grid. The regridded data were a weighted average of input grid 

values, where the weighting was based on the area of overlap between the 2.5-arcminute and the 5-arc-minute grid cells. Once all the data sources were at the 
10

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Table 3—Sources of gridded average historical climate (1961–1990)

URL Contact

Approach 

to gridding Agency Grid size

Alaska http://www.climatesource.com Chris Daly PRISM Climate Source 2.5 arc minute

Canada east of the 

Rocky Mountains

ftp://ftp.nofc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca David Price ANUSPLIN Natural Resources 

Canada, Canadian 

Forest Service

5 arc minute

Canada west of the 

Rocky Mountains

http://www.climatesource.com Chris Daly PRISM Climate Source 2.5 arc minute

Continental United 

States

http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu Chris Daly PRISM Oregon Climate 

Service

2.5 arc minute

5-arc-minute resolution grid, they were assembled into a single 12-month average 

(1961–1990) file. This 1961–1990 baseline climate was used for the “EQ” phase of 

the MC1 run. 

Creation of a vapor pressure baseline climate was complicated by the fact that 

no water vapor data were available for Alaska and western Canada for the PRISM 

baseline climate. Therefore, vapor pressure values for these regions were calculated 

by interpolating CRU-based relative humidity (RH). To calculate RH from the CRU 

data, saturated vapor pressure at Tmean was calculated using equation 1 (Waring 

and Running 1998). 

Satvp = 0.61078 × exp[(17.269 × T)/(237 + T)], (1)

where 

Satvp = saturated vapor pressure (kilopascals) and

T = temperature (degrees Celsius). 

Then we divided monthly vapor pressure by saturated vapor pressure to obtain 

RH. We then interpolated RH from the 0.5° CRU grid to the target 5-arc-minute 

grid using a bilinear interpolation. At the 5-arc-minute scale, mean saturated vapor 

pressure was calculated from mean temperature using equation 1. We then multiplied saturated vapor pressure by RH to produce the 5-arc-minute vapor pressure 

dataset. 

To generate our transient historical data, we used the anomaly or “delta” 

method (Fowler et al. 2007) and downscaled the 0.5° climate date from the CRU 

TS 2.0 (Mitchell et al. 2004). This same anomaly approach was subsequently used 

to downscale GCM future climates. To implement the anomaly method, first we 

calculated anomalies of the CRU data to the baseline period 1961–1990 by taking 

the difference or a ratio of the climate value for each month versus the average for 

that month over the baseline set of years. The baseline climate used at this point is 
11

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

calculated from CRU climate. For the anomaly approach, the coarse grid anomalies 

are always generated from the coarse grid source relative to a baseline from the 

same source. Difference anomalies were used for temperature, and ratios were used 

for precipitation and vapor pressure. Second, we used bilinear interpolation to transform each anomaly grid to a 5-arc-minute resolution. A bilinear interpolation is an 

extension of linear interpolations to a 2D grid. A linear interpolation is performed 

first in one direction and then again in the other direction. Finally, we added or 

multiplied the interpolated anomalies to the gridded observed baseline climate. This 

is a fine-grid baseline and is different from the coarse-grid baseline that was used 

to create the anomalies in the first place. The results are monthly climate values 

that encapsulate long-term temporal trends from the transient (CRU) data and finescale spatial climate patterns from the baseline climate data. These are the data that 

are used in the “historical” phase of an MC1 run. 

For the spinup phase of the model, we need a trend-free climate that varies 

from year to year, retains the variability found in the observed historical climate, 

and has average values that correspond with the climate at the start of the historical 

period. As was noted in “Simulation Protocol,” this phase of the model is used to 

build up aboveground carbon and fuel levels and establish dynamic fire events. The 

spinup data are derived from the transient historical data and are of the same length 

temporally but generally are run over many more years, so that for an MC1 run, the 

spinup climate data are cycled through many times. Unlike the historical or future 

data, no month in this dataset represesents any particular month in real time. 

To create the spinup climate data, historical data were detrended by creating 

a time series of anomalies. These are 31-year running anomalies and are different 

from the anomalies used to downscale the CRU historical climate. For each month 

of the spinup climate, we started with the transient historical value for that month. 

An anomaly was calculated as the difference between that month’s climate value 

and the average for that month for the 31 years centered at that month. For months 

within 15 years of the start or the end of the historical data, the average was based 

on whatever proportion of the 31-year span was available. For our 1,200-month 

transient historical climate, we produced 1,200 monthly anomalies. These were 

added to a baseline climate based on the first 15 years of the historical data (1901–

1915). The purpose for this step was to have the spinup transition smoothly into the 

historical data. 

Future Climate

General Circulation Model outputs for future climate have relatively coarse resolution. Those used for this project had resolutions ranging from 1.85 to 3.75 degrees. 
12

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

The data needed to be spatially downscaled to our 5-arc-minute grid. We used the 

same anomaly method to downscale the future climate that we used to downscale 

the CRU historical climate. This approach is described above. As was done with 

CRU, difference anomalies were used for temperature, and ratio anomalies were 

used for precipitation and vapor pressure.

The ratio anomalies used for precipitation posed some additional problems. 

There were some cases in which a GCM simulated zero precipitation for the 

1961–1990 baseline period, which prohibited the calculation of the rainfall anomaly 

values. To fix this problem, all simulated average 1961–1990 precipitation values 

of zero were converted to the smallest nonzero value being produced by that GCM. 

A second problem was that some ratio anomalies were extremely large when the 

denominator values were very low, producing precipitation values in the final 

downscaled data that were well outside of what could reasonably be expected. 

Because of this, ratio anomalies were capped at a value of 5.0. This cap was chosen because it still represents a very large increase but is rarely exceeded. It was 

implemented over less than 1 percent of all the grid cell/months. 

With the exception of HadCM3, data for all scenarios were obtained from the 

World Climate Research Program CMIP3 multimodel database website (https://

esg.llnl.gov:8443/home/publicHomePage.do). NetCDF files were downloaded for 

the GCMs miroc_3_2_medres and csiro_mk3_5. Scenarios selected were sresa2, 

sresa1b, and sresb1. Data were also collected for the 20c3m (20th century) experiment. Variables obtained included huss (surface specific humidity), pr (surface precipitation), ps (surface air pressure), tas (surface air temperature), tasmax (surface 

average maximum temperature per month), and tasmin (surface average minimum 

temperature per month). 

HadCM3 results were not available at the WCRP CMIP3 website, but instead 

had to be obtained from the British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC), http://badc.

nerc.ac.uk/home/index.html. BADC uses nonintuitive five-letter codes to designate different climate datasets. We selected aaxzl for historical data, aaxzi for A2 

data, acfxd for A1B, and acfxc for B1. The data are in a proprietary format called 

Post Processing Format (PP). We used the program Convsh provided by BADC to 

convert the PP files to NetCDF. 

HadCM3 data were daily values. We aggregated them to monthly values for 

input into MC1. The monthly value for temperature was calculated as an average 

of the daily values. HadCM3 data included RH but not vapor pressure. To calculate 

vapor pressure from RH, we first calculated saturated vapor pressure for the daily 

mean temperatures by using equation 1. We then multiplied saturated vapor pressure by RH. These daily vapor pressure values were then averaged for each month. 

Monthly precipitation was calculated by summing the daily values.
13

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Vapor pressure (vpr) values were also not directly provided for the CSIRO and 

MIROC GCMs. However, surface-specific humidity (huss) and surface air pressure 

(ps) were available for all three SRES scenarios of MIROC 3.2 medres and for two 

out of the three scenarios for CSIRO Mk3.5 (A2 and B1). To convert from huss and 

ps to vpr the following equation was derived from the ideal gas law:

vpr = ((ps/(RxTmean)) / ((Є/huss) + 1) × R × Tmean,

where

vpr = vapor pressure (pascals), 

ps = surface air pressure (pascals), 

Tmean = mean monthly temperature (degrees Celsius), 

huss = specific humidity (kg/kg),

R = universal gas constant, 8318.97862 (liter-Pascal/K), and 

Є = the ratio of the molecular weight of water vapor to dry air = 0.622.

Once monthly vpr values were obtained, we downscaled them by using the 

anomaly method described above. The method we used to obtain vapor pressure for 

the A1B scenario for CSIRO Mk3.5 is described in the next section.

Bias and Error Correction and Gap Filling

For both historical and future climate data, some variables or scenarios presented 

additional challenges that required us to modify our approach to producing the data. 

This section goes through some of those exceptions and describes the methods we 

used to respond to them. 

Producing future Tmin and Tmax data proved more problematic than producing 

Tmean data. Because differences between the three variables (Tmin, Tmax, and 

Tmean) were often very small, small errors (e.g., rounding errors) often resulted 

in reversals of the proper order when we used the anomaly method for all three 

variables (fig. 3). To correct this problem, future Tmean values were produced 

first using the anomaly method. Tmin/Tmax values were then calculated based on 

the mean diurnal temperature ranges (Tmin – Tmean and Tmax – Tmean) at the 

original GCM resolution. The temperature ranges were then downscaled to the 

5-arc-minute resolution and added/subtracted to/from the Tmean to create Tmax 

and Tmin values. 

Using the original diurnal temperature ranges from GCM data introduced a 

new problem, resulting from the fact that the GCMs frequently had diurnal temperature ranges different from our historical data. If this difference was not taken into 

account, then the Tmin or Tmax data would often suddenly increase or decrease 

at the transition from historical to future depending on the size of the GCM average diurnal temperature range relative to the historical. For example, in the grid 
14

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Figure 3—A demonstration of the problem with using the standard anomaly approach for Tmin, Tmean, and Tmax. In this 

graph tmin, tmean, and tmax values for a single grid cell are plotted over 3 years. In this case, all three climate variables were 

calculated by using the standard anomaly approach. Arrow indicates where the correct order of these variables gets reversed 

(i.e., Tmin > Tmean > Tmax). 

Figure 4—A demonstration of general circulation model (GCM) bias relative to PRISM climate. This is the plot of September 

Tmin and Tmax values for the grid cells enclosing Corvallis, Oregon. Gray lines are those from the PRISM dataset (based on 

interpolated weather station data). Grid-cells for this are 5-arc-minutes. Black lines are values simulated by the MIROC 3.2 

medres GCM. These grid cells are approximately 2.8°.

cell containing Corvallis, Oregon (fig. 4), the diurnal temperature range based on 

MIROC 3.2 medres data is about 15° while the range for the PRISM data is generally less than 5 °C. The grid-cell sizes are different between MIROC 3.2 medres 

and PRISM, but even after you interpolate the GCM values to the finer grid, 

significant differences exist. Because of this, a bias correction had to be applied to 

the interpolated diurnal temperature ranges. To make this bias adjustment we took 

the following steps (Tmax example):

1. Calculate (Tmax – Tmean) for the GCM for each month over the historical 

period (1901–2000). 
15

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

2. Calculate (Tmax – Tmean) for the historical data for each month over the 

historical period (1901–2000).

3. Spatially interpolate the (Tmax – Tmean) values from the GCM to the 

5-arc-minute grid (simple bilinear interpolation).

4. For each grid cell and for each month in the year, get the average (Tmax – 

Tmean) values for both the historical and for the interpolated GCM data.

5. Subtract the historical average (Tmax – Tmean) value from the average 

GCM value to get the average bias of the GCM relative to the historical 

data. 

6. When calculating future Tmax values, add the future interpolated GCM 

(Tmax – Tmean) values to the already downscaled future Tmean values, 

and then add the bias for each month.

Vapor pressure data were unavailable for Alaska and western Canada for 

PRISM baseline climate. Vapor pressure values for these regions were calculated 

by interpolating CRU-based RH. Saturated vpr at Tmean was calculated by using 

equation 1. We then divided monthly vpr by saturated vpr to obtain RH. We 

interpolated RH from the 0.5° CRU grid to the target 5-arc-minute grid by using a 

bilinear interpolation. At the 5-arc-minute scale, mean saturated vpr was calculated 

by using equation 1 because temperature data were available. They were then 

multiplied by the relative humidity values to produce the 5-arc-minute vpr dataset. 

As for all the other climate variables, transient historical vpr data were created 

by downscaling from CRU-based anomalies. Relative humidity anomalies were 

used to calculate vpr. For each month CRU-based RH, values were calculated by 

using equation 1. The RH anomalies were calculated as ratios of each month’s 

RH divided by the monthly baseline (1961–1990). Anomalies were interpolated to 

the 5-arc-minute grid by using bilinear interpolation. For the 5-arc-minute grid, 

monthly Tmeans were used to calculate saturated vpr. These were divided from 

the 5-arc-minute vpr values to produce RH values. These were multiplied by the 

interpolated RH anomalies to produce adjusted RH values, which were multiplied 

with the 5-arc-minute saturated vpr values to produce historical vpr values. 

The CRU TS 2.0 vpr data had periods of time during which the seasonal pattern repeated for several years. These repetitive data segments caused problems for 

MC1, so these segments were replaced with new vpr values. The repetitive years 

were defined as any year in which the average of the 12 monthly vpr values was 

the same as in adjacent years. New vpr values were calculated from saturated vpr 

(satvp) at Tmin by using equation 1. The new vpr, values were further adjusted by 
16

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

the ratio of air pressure relative to sea level air pressure as suggested by Price et al. 

(2004). Air pressure was calculated as P(z) = P(0) × [(1.0 – 0.0065z/293.0)5.26]

where

P = the atmospheric pressure at a given elevation (pascals) and

z = elevation (meters).

Finally, an adjustment factor (AF) was applied to the new vpr values to ensure 

smooth transitions between the original vpr and the new vpr values. To create the 

AF, the new vpr values were created for all months, even when the original vpr data 

appeared valid. During time periods when the original data appeared valid, we calculated AF as the average difference between the original and the new vpr values. The 

AFs were then added to the new vpr values to align them with the original data (fig. 5).

The CMIP3 portal lacked any kind of water vapor data for the CSIRO Mk3.5 

GCM when run over the A1B emission scenario. For this scenario, we calculated 

vpr by using the assumption that average RH values for the baseline period (1961–

1990) also applied to the future. We calculated future vpr values for this scenario as 

follows: 

1. For each month in the year and for each grid cell, we calculated the average 

RH for the years 1961–1990 from the historical dataset. 

Figure 5—Example of removing unchanging vapor pressure (vpr) values from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) TS 2.0 data for 

a single grid cell. All years for which the average of the vpr values across all 12 months of that year equaled the average of an 

adjacent year were labeled “unchanging.” Adjustments were only made for months within unchanging years. The blue line plots 

the original vpr values from CRU. Yellow lines represent vpr values calculated from saturated vpr at Tmin and adjusted for air 

pressure as described in Price et al. (2004). These vpr values were calculated for all months, even for those months for which no 

adjustment was needed. From the years where no adjustment was needed, the average of the difference between the calculated vpr 

and the CRU-based vpr values was calculated separately for each month of the year. This average difference was then used as an 

adjuster for those months where the surrogate was needed. The red line shows the adjusted vpr values. 
17

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

2. For each future month, we calculated the saturated vpr for Tmean by using 

equation 1. 

3. For each future month, we calculated vpr as the average historical RH for 

that month in the year multiplied by the saturated vpr for that month. 

We tested this approach for scenarios where specific humidity (huss) data were 

available and found excellent agreement between the RH-based vpr values and the 

huss-based vpr values (fig. 6a). For CSIRO-A2, the RH-based vpr had a bias of 30.6 

pascals at year 2001, increasing to about 60 pascals by year 2100 (fig. 6b). This was 

the largest bias observed for the three scenarios examined (MIROC B1, CSIRO A2, 

and CSIRO B1). 

Quality Control

All climate data were checked three ways. First, the largest and smallest values in 

each data file were checked to make sure that all values were within a reasonable 

range as determined by our experience with previous historical datasets. Historical 

values could be exceeded, but values an order of magnitude or more outside the 

historical range were assumed to be problematic. Second, a time-series of average 

monthly values across the continent was plotted to assure that there were no spurious spikes and that reasonable temporal patterns were followed. For example, for 

these northern latitude locations, we expected to see summer temperatures that 

were higher than winter. Third, a map of average values was created for a range of 

years (1961–1990 for historical and 2070–2099 for future). The map was visually 

inspected to ensure that spatial patterns were reasonable. For example, we visually 

confirmed that temperatures were generally lower at higher latitudes and elevations. 

Additionally, for a subset of variables and scenarios, downscaled future climate 

anomaly maps were visually compared with climate anomaly maps produced from 

the GCMs at the original resolution. 

Results

Climate

Temperatures increase everywhere in the study domain under all three emissions 

scenarios and for all three GCMs from the historical period (1961–1990) to the end 

of the century (2070–2099), with the greatest increases happening in the far north 

(fig. 7). The A2 emissions scenarios produce the most warming, and the B1 scenarios produce the least. The MIROC GCM produces the most warming, with average 

annual temperature increases across the continent rising to close to 9 °C by the end 

of the 21st century for the A2 emissions scenario (fig. 8). The HadCM3 and CSIRO 
18

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Figure 6—Vapor pressure (vpr) values calculated for the CSIRO Mk3.5 SRES A2 

scenario by assuming that average relative humidity (RH) values for the baseline period 

(1961–1990) also apply to the future, versus vpr levels calculated from surface specific 

humidity (huss) data. The purpose of this comparison is to show how well the average 

RH approach approximates future surface atmospheric water vapor when no data are 

provided by the general circulation model. Figure 6a shows a scatterplot of all grid cell/

months across the years 2001–2100 of vpr values calculated with the two alternative 

methods. Figure 6b shows the average value for the difference between the RH-based vpr 

versus the huss-based vpr for each time period.
19

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Figure 7—Mean monthly temperature levels for historical and six future scenarios. The map in the center is the average mean monthly 

temperature for the historical period (1961–1990). The maps along the sides show the mean temperature for the years 2070–2099 for the 

Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 emission scenarios for each climate model used in this study. 

Figure 8—Area-weighted mean temperature across the United States and Canada by year in degrees 

Celsius for the three Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 future scenarios, with historical 

temperatures. 
20

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

GCMs produce comparable levels of warming, with average temperature increases 

across the continent rising to close to 8 °C for the A2 emissions. 

There is general agreement among all nine climate projections that precipitation increases in the 21st century in Alaska, most of Canada, the northern Rocky 

Mountains, and the northern Cascade Range (fig. 9). All nine climate projections 

show decreases in precipitation for most of Louisiana, the coastal plains of Texas, 

the south-central prairies of Kansas, and a patch of the western plains in Missouri. MIROC stands in contrast with the other GCMs in producing decreases in 

precipitation across most of the Eastern United States, south-central Canada, the 

western Great Plains, and the southern Great Basin. HadCM3 stands out from the 

Figure 9—Mean monthly precipitation for historical and six future scenarios. The map in the center is the average annual sum precipitation for the years 1961–1990. The maps along the sides show the ratios of change in annual sum average precipitation for the years 

2070–2099 versus 1961–1990 for the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 emission scenarios. 
21

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

other GCMs in projecting increases in precipitation in the Southwest and along the 

Gulf Coast. HadCM3 projects decreases in precipitation in western Oregon and 

Washington and in southern British Columbia. CSIRO differs from the other GCMs 

in projecting increases in precipitation in most of California, south-central Oregon, 

and across much of the Plains.

Temporal trends at the continental scale are somewhat divergent among the 

nine climate projections. HadCM3 and CSIRO A2 scenarios show a general trend 

of increasing precipitation throughout this century, with CSIRO producing much 

wider variation such that it includes both the highest and lowest precipitation levels 

of the 21st century (fig. 10). Though maps of MIROC precipitation show regions 

with dramatic decreases in precipitation, MIROC’s precipitation average for the 

continent remains relatively flat through the 21st century for the A2 scenario. 

MC1 Historical Outputs

To compare the Küchler (1964) potential vegetation map with MC1 simulated 

vegetation type distributions for the historical period (1961–1990), we created a 

crosswalk table associating Küchler and MC1 vegetation types (table 4). Vegetation 

types are determined annually in the MC1 model and can change from year to year. 

For spatial comparisons of MC1 versus Küchler, we used the mode vegetation map 

Figure 10—Area weighted mean annual sum precipitation averaged across the United States and 

Canada by year in millimeters for the three Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 future 

scenarios and for historical values.
22

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Table 4—Crosswalk between Küchler, MC1, and an aggregated vegetation class (continued)

Küchler MC1 Aggregated

1 Ice/Barren 1 Ice/Barren

52 Alpine meadows and barren 2 Tundra 2 Tundra

93 Great lakes spruce/fir 4 Boreal Evergreen Needleleaf Forest 3 Forest

95 Great Lakes pine forest

94 Conifer bog 5 Boreal Mixed Woodland

4 Fir/hemlock 6 Subalpine

7 Red fir forest

8 Lodgepole pine/subalpine

15 Western spruce/fir

20 Spruce/fir/Douglas-fir

21 Southwest spruce/fir

22 Great Basin pine forest

1 Spruce/cedar/hemlock 7 Maritime Evergreen Needleleaf Forest

2 Cedar/hemlock/Douglas-fir

3 Silver fir/Douglas-fir

5 Mixed conifer

6 Redwood

9 Pine-cypress forest

10 Ponderosa shrub 8 Temperate Evergreen Needleleaf Forest

11 Western ponderosa

12 Douglas-fir

13 Cedar/hemlock/pine

14 Grand fir/Douglas-fir

16 Eastern ponderosa

17 Black Hills pine

18 Pine/Douglas-fir

19 Arizona pine

96 Northeastern spruce-fir forest

97 Southeastern spruce-fir forest
23

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Table 4—Crosswalk between Küchler, MC1, and an aggregated vegetation class (continued)

Küchler MC1 Aggregated

25 Alder-ash forest 9 Temperate Deciduous Broadleaf Forest 3 Forest

98 Northern floodplain

99 Maple/basswood

100 Oak-hickory forest

101 Elm/ash

102 Beech/maple

103 Mixed mesophytic

104 Appalachian oak

106 Northern hardwoods 10 Temperate Cool Mixed Forest

107 Northern hardwoods/fir

Northern hardwoods/spruce

109 Transition between #104 and #106

110 Northeastern oak/pine

26 Oregon oak woods 11 Temperate Warm Mixed Forest

28 Mosaic of #2 and #26

111 Oak/hickory/pine

113 Southern floodplain forest

105 Mangrove 21 Subtropical Evergreen Broadleaf Forest

27 Mesquite bosques 22 Subtropical Mixed Forest

29 California mixed evergreen forest

112 Southern mixed forest

2114 Pocosin

115 Sand pine scrub

116 Subtropical pine forest

24 Juniper steppe woodland 12 Temperate Evergreen Needleleaf Woodland 4 Woodland

83 Cedar glades

71 Shinnery 13 Temperate Deciduous Broadleaf Woodland

81 Oak savanna

82 Mosaic of #74 and #100

84 Cross timbers
24

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Table 4—Crosswalk between Küchler, MC1, and an aggregated vegetation class (continued)

Küchler MC1 Aggregated

89 Blackbelt 13 Temperate Deciduous Broadleaf Woodland 4 Woodland

30 California oakwoods 26 Subtropical Mixed Woodland

31 Oak/juniper woodland

32 Transition between #31 and #37

85 Mesquite/buffalo grass

86 Juniper/poak savanna

87 Mesquite/oak savanna

90 Live oak/sea oats

91 Cypress savanna

36 Mosaic of #30 and #35

23 Juniper/pinyon woodland 37 Coniferous xeromorphic woodland

37 Mountain mahogany/oak scrub 16 Temperate Shrubland 5 Shrubland

38 Great Basin sagebrush

39 Blackbrush

40 Saltbrush/greasewood

55 Sagebrush steppe

33 Chaparral 27 Subtropical Shrubland

34 Montane chaparral

35 Coastal sagebrush

41 Creosote bush

42 Creosote bush/bursage

44 Creosote bush/tarbush

45 Ceniza shrub

62 Mesquite/live oak savanna

49 Tule marshes 17 Temperate Grassland 6 Grassland

50 Fescue/wheatgrass

51 Wheatgrass/bluegrass

56 Wheatgrass/needlegrass shrubsteppe

63 Foothills prairie

64 Grama/needlegrass/wheatgrass
25

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Table 4—Crosswalk between Küchler, MC1, and an aggregated vegetation class (continued)

Küchler MC1 Aggregated

66 Wheatgrass/needlegrass 17 Temperate Grassland 6 Grassland

67 Wheatgrass/bluestem/needlegrass

68 Wheatgrass/grama/buffalo grass

73 Northern cordgrass prairie

74 Bluestem

75 Nebraska sandhills prairie

47 Fescue/oatgrass 28 Subtropical Grassland

48 California steppe

53 Grama/galleta steppe

54 Grama/tobosa prairie

57 Galleta/three awn shrubsteppe

58 Grama/tobosa steppe

59 Trans-pecos shrub savanna

60 Mesquite savanna

61 Mesquite/acacia savanna

65 Grama/buffalo grass

69 Bluestem/grama

70 Sandsage/bluestem

72 Sea oats prairie

76 Blackland

77 Bluestem/sacahuista

78 Southern cordgrass prairie

79 Palmetto prairie

80 Marl-Everglades

88 Fayette prairie

92 Everglades

46 Desert (vegetation absent) 18 Temperate Desert 7 Desert

43 Paleoverde/cactus 29 Subtropical Desert
26

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

for the years 1961–1990 for a run of the MC1 model without fire suppression. The 

proportion of agreement between MC1 and Küchler was 0.61 for the aggregated 

vegetation classes and the Kappa coefficient was 0.51 (fig. 11). It is not possible to 

determine statistical significance to the Kappa coefficient, but Landis and Koch 

(1977) in a subjective determination called Kappas of 0.41 to 0.6 a “moderate” level 

of agreement. MC1 simulates forest and woodland vegetation types farther into the 

prairie region than Küchler. Much of the Southwestern United States is simulated 

to be grassland in MC1, but is shrubland in Küchler. Some of the eastern prairie is 

simulated as shrubland by MC1, but represented as grassland in Küchler. 

The National Biomass and Carbon Dataset for the year 2000 (NBCD2000) 

of Kellindorfer et. al (2012) includes a map of aboveground live carbon mass. 

NBCD2000 data are based on an empirical modeling approach that combined 

Figure 11—A comparison of the aggregated potential vegetation maps of MC1 and Küchler (1964). The MC1 map is the mode vegetation map for the years 1961–1990 for a run of the MC1 model without fire suppression. The difference map shows the MC1 aggregated 

vegetation classes where MC1 and Küchler differ. 
27

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data with high-resolution 

InSAR remote sensing data acquired from the 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and remote sensing data acquired from the Landsat ETM+ sensor. We 

compared these NBCD2000 values against the results from MC1 for the sum of the 

variables aflivcx (maximum aboveground live tree carbon) and aglivcx (maximum 

aboveground live grass carbon). 

The aboveground live carbon estimates from MC1 (aflivcx + aglivcx) are 

greater than NBCD2000 over 80 percent of the forested grid cells, with the greatest 

differences in the Coast Range of the Pacific Northwest, northern New England, 

and Florida (fig. 12). Locations where simulated vegetation carbon is relatively low 

are scattered across the map. There is a concentration near the Appalachian Mountains, along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, along the Sierra Nevada in California, 

and up the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington. But for most of the Rocky 

Mountains, MC1 live carbon is relatively high. 

A significant potential cause for aboveground vegetation carbon differences 

is the fact that the NBCD2000 data are based on actual vegetation, whereas MC1 

simulates potential vegetation. A scatterplot of MC1 versus NBCD2000 aboveground live carbon values within national parks provides more of an appropriate 

comparison (fig. 13). The best-fit line is parallel with the 1:1 line, and the slope is 

very close to 1.0. On average, MC1 produces values that are roughly 2,200 g m-2

higher than the NBCD values at all carbon levels. 

We compared MC1’s simulated fire return interval (FRI) with those estimated 

by Leenhouts (1998). Leenhouts estimated preindustrial and expected wildland 

fire activity by using national land classification data (Küchler 1964) and known 

ecological FRIs. Leenhouts provides a minimum and a maximum FRI for each of 

the Küchler vegetation classes. For MC1 we calculated the FRI as: 

(2)

where 

FRI = fire return interval, 

N = number of years examined (100 years, 1901–2000), and 

part_burn = portion of the grid cell burned. 

We compared simulated FRI to the maximum and minimum FRI estimated 

by Leenhouts (fig. 14). MC1 generally produces shorter FRIs in the Southwest and 

along the western boundary of the Great Plains, while producing longer FRIs in 

FRI = N/ � part_burn

N

year = 1
28

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Figure 12—Maps of MC1 aboveground live carbon (grams per square meter) versus NBCD2000 (Kellindorfer et al. 2012) for the year 

2000. To get aboveground live carbon, the MC1 variable aflivcx (maximum aboveground live tree carbon) was added to aglivcx (maximum aboveground live grass carbon). Also included is a difference map showing MC1 minus NBCD.

Figure 13—A scatterplot of MC1 aboveground live carbon versus NBCD2000 carbon (C) (Kellindorfer et al. 2012) on national park 

lands for the year 2000. To get the aboveground live carbon for MC1, the variable aflivcx (max aboveground live tree carbon) was 

added to aglivcx (maximum aboveground live grass carbon). The national parks map was obtained from the National Atlas of the 

United States and the U.S. Geological Survey. In this map, the polygons represent the federal- and Indian-owned lands of 640 ac or 

more in the United States. The solid line on the scatterplot is the least squares regression line, and the dashed line shows the 1:1 line 

where MC1 and NBCD carbon values are equal.
29

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Figure 14—MC1 mean fire return intervals (FRI) versus minimum and maximum FRI published by Leenhouts (1998). Top maps 

are the Leenhouts minimum and maximum FRI. Center left map is the FRI from MC1 based on 50/(Σpart_burn)year = 1951,2000. 

Part_burn is the proportion of the grid cell burned. The bottom left map shows where the MC1 estimate falls within the Leenhouts 

range (black), where fires are more frequent with MC1 (red), and where they are less frequent (blue).

much of the Eastern United States and in the Northwest. In particular, MC1 simulates more frequent fires than Leenhouts across many of the relatively low-elevation 

areas in the West: the western prairies, southwest deserts, Great Basin, and Central 

Valley in California. MC1 also has higher frequency fires along the lower Mississippi River and in much of Ohio and Indiana. The area of the domain where 

the MC1 estimate of FRI falls within the range of Leenhouts is relatively small, 

comprising numerous patches in the Midwest, including the Prairie Peninsula, and 

smaller patches in the Northwest.
30

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Table 5—Stream gages for which we compared streamflow 

River Rogue River Salt River Sinnamahoning Creek

Location

At Raygold near 

Central Point, 

Oregon

Near Roosevelt, 

Arizona

First Fork near 

Sinnamahoning, 

Pennsylvania

Gage number 14359000 09498500 01544000

Latitude 42°26'15" 33°37'10" 41°24'06"

Longitude 122°59'10" 110°55'15" 78°01'28"

Size of drainage basin (km2

) 5187 10 555 578

Average annual flow

(m3

 × 108)

26.9 8.1 3.6

Years covered 1906–1976 1913–2000 1956–2000

We compared MC1’s simulated streamflow for the historical period against 

gage data for three basins in the United States: the Rogue River basin, Oregon; 

Salt River basin, Arizona; and Sinnamahoning Creek basin, Pennsylvania (table 5). 

The three basins were selected to ensure that at least several decades of streamflow 

gage data were available and to include one in the West with dry summers (Rogue 

River), one in the arid Southwest (Salt River Arizona), and one in the East (Sinnamahoning Creek). MC1’s annual streamflow was calculated by summing annual 

streamflow for all grid cells within the basin boundaries. No routing or transport 

algorithms were applied. We compared streamflow for all the years for which gage 

data were available. 

MC1 generally replicated streamflow with moderate skill. Of these three 

gages, the highest correlation between MC1 simulated flows and the gage was 

for the Salt River (R2 = 0.62), but the model tended to overestimate streamflows 

(fig. 15). Average streamflow estimated by MC1 was closest to the gage average 

for the Rogue River, but the correlation was also the weakest (R2 = 0.33). Correlation between simulated flows and the gage was intermediate (R2 = 0.49) for 

Sinnamahoning Creek. MC1 appears to replicate the temporal variability of streamflow well, with some low and high biases at Sinnemahoning Creek and Salt River, 

respectively. For the Rogue River, MC1 tended to simulate flows that were too low 

during high-flow years and were too high during low-flow years. The low-bias at 

Sinnemahoning Creek is likely the result of MC1 overestimating the live vegetation 

in the basin, leading to greater interception evaporation and transpiration. Within 

the Sinnemahoning Creek basin, MC1 aboveground tree carbon values range from 

106 to 226 percent of the NBCD2000 values. Another possible source of error is 

that the Sinnamahoning Creek drainage basin is small, having only nine grid cells 
31

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Figure 15—Measured streamflow versus that estimated by MC1 for three stream gages: the first fork of Sinnamahoning Creek near 

Sinnamahoning, Pennsylvania; the Rogue River at Raygold near Central Point, Oregon; and the Salt River near Roosevelt, Arizona. Plots 

on the left show MC1 estimates of annual streamflow (in m3

 year-1 × 108) versus flow levels measured by the gage. Each point represents 

streamflow values for 1 year. The solid line shows the fitted least squares line through the points. The dashed line shows where the 

scatter would lie if the MC1 estimate and the measured streamflow were the same. Plots on the right show the annual sum flow rates over 

time with the black line being flows measured by the gage and the gray lines being estimates of flow from MC1 outputs.

fall within it. Delineating a drainage basin with grid cells will involve some error 

because some boundary grid cells will extend outside the drainage basin, and some 

areas along the edge of the drainage basin will not be included. For a small drainage 

basin such as Sinnamahoning Creek, the area where there are errors of omission 

and commission will be high relative to the area of the drainage basin. 
32

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

MC1 Future Outputs

Changes projected by MC1 were more pronounced across GCMs than across the 

SRES emission scenarios (figs. 16 and 17). For each GCM, spatial patterns were 

relatively similar across all three emission scenarios, i.e., locations where model 

outputs increased and decreased relative to historical values were similar across the 

three emission scenarios. The A2 scenario produced the geographic pattern most 

strongly, the B1 scenario produced the pattern most weakly, and the A1B scenario 

was always intermediate. For example, of the three GCMs examined in this report, 

CSIRO is the only one to produce increases in streamflow in southern California 

(fig. 17), and those increases are most pronounced for the A2 emission scenario. In 

this report, emission scenario comparisons are primarily made between the B1 and 

the A2 scenario, and generally the CSIRO-B1 and the MIROC-A2 scenarios are 

used to represent the extremes of possible results. 

Figure 16—Change in vegetation carbon. The map in the center is the mean vegetation carbon for the years 1961–1990. The maps 

along the sides show the percentage change for the Special Report of Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 emission scenarios where the 

percentage change is calculated as {((future – historical) × 100)/historical}. Future values were averages for the years 2070–2099. 
33

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Figure 17—Mean annual streamflow derived from MC1 for the historical period, and the percentage change in streamflow for six future 

scenarios. The map in the center is the mean streamflow for the years 1961–1990. The maps along the sides show the percentage change 

maps for the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 emission scenarios where percentage change is calculated as [((future – 

historical) × 100)/historical]. Future values were average for the years 2070–2099.

MC1 projects significant changes in the aggregated vegetation class by the 

end of the 21st century, with changes ranging from 37 percent of the total land area 

under CSIRO-B1 to 45 percent under MIROC-A2 (fig. 18). The most apparent shifts 

are from woody encroachment in the far northern regions (table 6). Of the area that 

starts as barren, 82 percent shifts to tundra for MIROC-A2, and 72 percent shifts 

for CSIRO-B1. Under MIROC-A2, 56 percent of the tundra is converted to forest 

or woodlands and 34 percent makes that conversion for CSIRO-B1. Under MIROCA2, 57 percent of the woodlands converts to forests and 58 percent makes that 

conversion in CSIRO-B1. Most of these woodlands that shift are in the far north 

(“taiga-tundra” for the unaggregated vegetation class). 

Looking at the vegetation classes of lower latitudes, 28 percent of the forests 

convert to less woody classes under MIROC-A2, and 22 percent of the forests 

make that conversion for CSIRO-B1. Most of the forest conversions happen in the 
34

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Figure 18—Change in vegetation class for an aggregated vegetation class. Center map shows the mode vegetation map for the years 

1961–1990 (historical period). The maps along the sides show change maps for the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 

emission scenarios. The change maps show white where the historical and future maps are the same and show the future vegetation 

classes for locations where there are differences. 
35

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Table 6—Proportions of areas changing from one aggregated vegetation class to another for 

the two most extreme scenarios

MIROC A2 AREAS

Historical

Barren Tundra Forest Woodland Shrubland Grassland Desert

Barren 0.18 0.82 0 0 0 0 0

Tundra 0 0.36 0.20 0.36 0 0.07 0

Forest 0 0 0.72 0.10 0.12 0.06 0

Woodland 0 0 0.57 0.31 0.05 0.07 0

Shrubland 0 0 0.10 0.06 0.44 0.40 0

Grassland 0 0 0.03 0.24 0.17 0.55 0.01

Desert 0.14 0 0.02 0 0 0.04 0.81

CSIRO B1 Areas

Historical

Barren Tundra Forest Woodland Shrubland Grassland Desert

Barren 0.30 0.70 0 0 0 0 0

Tundra 0 0.66 0.06 0.28 0 0.01 0

Forest 0 0 078 0.11 0.09 0.02 0

Woodland 0 0 0.58 0.23 0.04 0.14 0

Shrubland 0 0 0.20 0.08 0.50 0.22 0

Grassland 0 0 0.05 0.19 0.20 0.55 0

Desert 0 0 0 0 0.05 0.23 0.72

Note: Values show changes from the historical period (1961–1990) to the future period (2070–2099). Each cell is the proportion of 

the area starting as the vegetation class indicated along the left of the table and switching to the vegetation class indicated along 

the top of the table. Each row should sum up to 1.0.

provinces of southern Canada, with most of the forests of the Eastern United States 

remaining as forests, although when unaggregated vegetation classes are examined, 

conversions to different forest types do occur. At mid-latitudes (southern Canada 

and northern United States), most woodland areas that change convert to grasslands, with 14 percent of the original area converting to grasslands for CSIRO-B1. 

Areas that start as shrubland and switch to another vegetation class go both in the 

direction of more wood and of less wood. For MIROC-A2, most shrubland areas 

that switch convert to grasslands (40 percent), whereas only 16 percent convert to 

forests or woodlands. For CSIRO-B1, 22 percent of the area that changes converts 

to grasslands and 28 percent converts to forests or woodlands. For MIROC-A2, 

44 percent of the area starting as grasslands converts to more woody vegetation 

classes, and 45 percent makes that shift for CSIRO-B1. Of the areas that start as 

desert, 14 percent converts to a more arid category (barren) for MIROC-A2, and 23 

percent converts to a less-arid category (grassland) for CSIRO-B1. There are two 

types of barren land that get lumped in MC1: cold barren (ice fields) and hot barren 
36

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

(desert areas so extreme as to be almost completely lacking in vegetation). Most 

of the conversions from barren in table 6 are for cold barren areas converting to 

tundra, and most of the conversions to barren are from desert to hot barren. 

Gonzalez et al. (2010) used shifts in MC1 vegetation type output as one indicator of ecosystem vulnerability. He created a map showing the number of scenarios 

where the vegetation type shifts for every grid cell. The assumption is that, for 

each grid cell, the higher the number of scenarios that lead to type shifts, the more 

“vulnerable” is its ecosystem. We created the same type of map (fig. 19) by using 

our MC1 results for the nine scenarios. According to our map, the most “vulnerable” ecosystems were located in the northern part of the continent along ecotones, 

especially along the forest-tundra ecotone and along the forest-grassland ecotone. 

Most of Southeastern United States is projected to remain forested, but changes 

from one forest type to another are projected to occur. Most of the desert regions of 

the Southwest were projected to remain unchanged, as were the forests of western 

Figure 19—The number of future scenarios (out of nine) where the aggregated vegetation class changes. The aggregated vegetation class 

consists of six basic classes: cold, forest, woodland, savanna, grassland, and shrubland.
37

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Oregon and Washington. This map is not intended to suggest that those areas 

have no vulnerabilities under climate change scenarios. For example, even within 

MC1 results, some of those areas experience large increases in fires under some 

scenarios.

For vegetation carbon, there is broad agreement of geographic patterns among 

all simulation results. Far northern regions of Canada generally increase in vegetation carbon (fig. 20). These regions correspond to locations where forests encroach 

on tundra. Vegetation carbon in the northern Plains states generally increases as 

well, and this corresponds to shrub encroachment on grasslands. All simulation 

results produce decreases in vegetation carbon from the Midwestern United States 

through Michigan and northern Ohio to the Northeastern United States. Decrease 

in vegetation carbon continues northward into much of southeastern Ontario and 

Quebec, though it is a bit more scattered in the Canadian provinces. Much of this 

decrease is due to conversions of forest to woodland or shrubland types. MIROC 

diverges from the other two GCMs in forecasting a greater decrease in vegetation 

carbon in the Southern United States (fig. 16). HadCM3 differs from the other 

GCMs in producing downward trends in vegetation carbon in western Oregon and 

Figure 20—The number of future scenarios (out of nine) in which the average vegetation carbon increases relative to the historical 

period. Average historical vegetation carbon is calculated for the years 1961–1990, and average future vegetation carbon values are 

calculated for the years 2070–2099. 
38

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Washington, but HadCM3 shows more increases in the plains provinces of Canada 

and in the Southeastern United States than do the other two GCMs. CSIRO is 

unique in that it shows increases in vegetation carbon in California and Nevada, as 

well as in the plains states of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Colorado. 

It is the one GCM to show decreases in the central Atlantic States. 

All simulated scenarios forecast a decline in average vegetation carbon for 

the continent from the present to the end of the 21st century (fig. 21). Simulation 

results using HadCM3’s climate projections forecast the most stable vegetation 

carbon, with results from the B1 scenario being the most stable after mid-century. 

Simulations using MIROC’s climate projections cause steadier carbon losses 

than HadCM3. Simulations using CSIRO’s climate projections cause a very rapid 

vegetation carbon decline in the first half of the 21st century, followed by a rise in 

the second half. Note that all scenarios end the 21st century with average vegetation 

carbon levels that exceed those of the start of the 20th century, but also note that the 

model does not include pests or pathogens. 

The analysis of changes in the biomass consumed by fire projected by MC1 

is complicated by the widely varying ranges simulated for historical values, from 

virtually no fire at all to over 400 g C-1 m

-2 on average. For this reason, the percentage of change maps (fig. 22) need to be interpreted with some caution. Some largepercentage increases represent large increases in absolute terms, whereas for other 

grid cells with very little historical fire, a large-percentage increase corresponds 

Figure 21—Total vegetation carbon across the United States and Canada by year in petagrams (Pg) for the nine future scenarios 

and for the historical period. MC1 vegetation carbon output is in grams of carbon per square meter. The area of each grid-cell, 

calculated in square meters, was multiplied by the vegetation carbon biomass consumed output value to produce the biomass 

consumed in grams and these values were summed across all grid cells.
39

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Figure 22—Average biomass consumed by fire coming from MC1 for the historical period and the percentage change in biomass 

consumed by fire for six future scenarios. The map in the center is the average biomass consumed by fire for the years 1951–2000. The 

maps along the sides show the percentage change maps for the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 emission scenarios 

where percentage change is calculated as (future – historical) × 100)/historical. Future values were averages for the years 2050–2099.

to little change in absolute amounts (grams of carbon per square meter). Generally 

there is agreement among all scenarios that biomass consumed by fire will increase 

for most areas of the United States and Canada. Increases generally do not occur in 

Alaska and Canada, where virtually no fire is simulated for the historical period. 

Another region lacking consistent increases across all scenarios lies along the 

Gulf Coast. There are no locations across the entire study area where all scenarios 

project decreases in biomass consumed.

Time series of average biomass consumed averaged across the study area produce some startling results (fig. 23). All three GCMs produce frequent fire events 

in the 21st century that are bigger than anything simulated historically, but CSIRO 
40

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Figure 23—Total biomass consumed by fire across the United States and Canada by year in teragrams (Tg) for the nine future scenarios and for the historical period. Output of biomass consumed by fire for the MC1 model is in units of grams of carbon per square 

meter. The area of each grid cell, calculated in square meters, was multiplied by the biomass consumed output value to produce the 

biomass consumed in grams, and these values were summed across all grid cells.

produces some extraordinarily large fire events starting from the very first decade. 

For these datasets, historical data end with the year 2000, and from 2001 onward 

the model is run on downscaled GCM climate. This means that as of this writing, 

we are over a decade into the “future” scenarios. The large conflagrations predicted 

by using CSIRO climate projections have not yet been observed. It is difficult to say 

whether this results from an error in the climate projection or in the projection of 

fires coming out of MC1. 

There is general agreement among the scenarios that streamflow increases in 

the 21st century in Alaska and in much of northern Canada (fig. 17). The scenarios 

all agree that much of eastern Oregon and Washington have decreases in streamflows as have much of central Wyoming and Colorado. MIROC produces the most 

pronounced decreases, and stands in contrast with the other two GCMs in producing decreases across most of the Eastern United States and in parts of southeastern 

Canada. It also is alone in producing decreases in Arizona and New Mexico as well 

as in much of Montana and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. HadCM3 stands 
41

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

out from the other two GCMs in producing decreases in streamflow in northwestern Oregon, through much of Washington, and in southern British Columbia. 

CSIRO produces the most increases in streamflow and stands out from the other 

two scenarios in producing increases throughout the prairie states and in California 

and southwestern Oregon. These spatial patterns roughly correspond to those 

observed for changes in precipitation (fig. 9).

Though the MIROC scenarios produced pronounced decreases in streamflow 

regionally, average continental streamflow drops only slightly from the maximum 

level observed in the last quarter of the 20th century, and it never drops below 

levels observed in the 20th century (fig. 24). HadCM3 and CSIRO show moderate 

increases on average from late 20th-century levels, but with CSIRO displaying some 

occasional peaks that are much higher than ever observed in the 20th century. These 

temporal patterns roughly correspond to those observed for precipitation (fig. 10). 

Figure 24—Total streamflow across the United States and Canada by year in m3 × 1015 for the nine future scenarios and for the historical period. The output of streamflow for the MC1 model is in units of millimeters per year. The area of each grid cell, calculated 

in square meters, was multiplied by the MC1 stream-flow to produce the streamflow in cubic meters per year, and these values were 

summed across all grid cells.
42

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Discussion

Because vegetation biomass strongly influences both fire events and potential vegetation designations, it is important to model it skillfully. The NBCD2000 carbon 

data provide an important benchmark, but comparing MC1 aboveground vegetation carbon (AGVeg) with the NBCD2000 values raises an issue that is frequently 

encountered when comparing dynamic global vegetation models, such as MC1, 

against empirically measured benchmarks. MC1 simulates potential vegetation, 

whereas most benchmarks are modeled or measured from actual vegetation. With 

the NBCD2000 data, we were able to look at a comparison restricted to national 

parks, where the vegetation is more likely to represent potential natural vegetation 

(PNV) than elsewhere. The correlation between MC1 and NBCD2000 improves 

from an R2

 of 0.34 to 0.46 when we confine the comparison to just national parks. 

Although the national park mask we used for this comparison probably represents 

locations more like potential vegetation, many of those grid cells may have undergone some human disturbance. 

Potential natural vegetation is defined as the last successional stage of native 

flora of an area under the current climate regime and lacking further human 

changes (Küchler 1964). This is a concept with several potential problems and 

subject to much discussion in the literature (Chiarucci et al. 2010, Somodi et al. 

2012). It has been argued that the designations are subjective, scale dependent, and 

dependent on the timing of the observations used to make the designation. The 

PNV concept assumes that one final stage is reached in vegetation succession under 

stable conditions, but stable conditions are rarely reached in the real world. Because 

of these complexities, PNV types are difficult to simulate accurately for inherently dynamic ecosystems such as savannas and shrublands. Savannas consist of a 

mosaic in which clumps of woody plants are dispersed throughout a grassy matrix. 

Scholes and Archer (1997) noted: 

...all mixtures of mature trees and grass are unstable in savanna environments. In the absence of disturbances such as repeated fires, clearing by 

humans, or feeding by large herbivores, the tree cover increases at the 

expense of grass production until it is limited by tree-tree competition. 

The maintenance of a savanna state is a dynamic process based on disturbance 

events that happen at scales smaller than the 5-arc-minute grid cell size used in 

this project. MC1 uses a modified version of the CENTURY Soil Organic Matter Model, which always runs in “savanna mode.” In “savanna mode,” the model 

always simulates both woody and grass biomass in every grid cell, with the woody 
43

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

biomass occasionally being decreased by fire events. MC1 does not model individual plants, and the PNV is determined annually. Therefore, the distinction among 

grasslands, shrublands, and savannas is determined solely by the amounts of woody 

and grass biomass in a given grid cell for a single year. 

The dynamic balance that maintains savannas and the simplicity of MC1’s algorithm for distinguishing savannas from other vegetation types help explain much of 

MC1’s differences from benchmark data. For example, MC1 predicts more woody 

types in the eastern Great Plains and in the Prairie Peninsula, along with higher 

levels of simulated vegetation carbon. Anderson (1990) stated that “the prairie peninsula historically has fluctuated between a climate capable of supporting grassland 

and one supporting forest.” Briggs et al. (2002) observed that “[the tallgrass prairie 

biome] occupies a tension zone between forest and grassland and historically this 

tension zone has been quite sensitive to shifts in climate, land management and fire 

regime.” In recent years, the average climate has been capable of supporting forests 

(Anderson 1990), and because the PNV maps were published by Küchler (1964), 

there has been a considerable encroachment of woody vegetation in the areas of the 

tallgrass prairie (Lett and Knapp 2005).

Fire return intervals (FRI) for MC1 were calculated by summing the value for 

the part_burn variable, which represents the portion of the grid cell burned in a year 

(equation 2). This is consistent with the fact that most MC1 simulations heretofore 

were based on relatively large grid cell sizes of 0.5° latitude and longitude (Bachelet 

et al. 2001b, 2005), and such a large grid cell should not burn completely when a 

fire event is simulated. An alternative way of interpreting the part_burn variable is 

possible. Some recent projects have used relatively fine spatial resolution, e.g., 30 

arc-seconds for the Pacific Northwest (Rogers 2011). For 30-arc-second grid cells, 

the chance that a fire event spreads throughout an entire grid cell is much higher. 

In this case, part_burn may be defined as the percentage of total available fuel 

burned within the fireline, rather than the area touched by the fireline. Given that 

the resolution used in the present project (5 arc-minutes) is intermediate between 

the 30-arc-second resolution and the 0.5° resolution, we calculated FRI by using the 

alternate interpretation (i.e., for any year, a grid cell with a part_burn value greater 

than zero was considered to have burned 100 percent of that cell). MC1 generally 

simulated many years with very small part_burn values. Therefore, when we used 

the alternative interpretation, the resulting FRI values were generally smaller and 

had poorer correspondence with values reported by Leenhouts (1998). 

MC1 uses two parameters to control fire occurrence: fine fuel moisture code 

(FFMC) and build-up index (BUI). FFMC and BUI thresholds are defined for 

each of eight broad physiognomic categories. These 16 thresholds are difficult to 
44

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

parameterize when simulating broad regions with diverse vegetation types and 

fire regimes. Optimizing parameters for one region resulted in degrading model 

performance in another. For example, when the fire occurrence parameters were 

set to maximize correspondence of grassland in the eastern Great Plains with 

those published by Küchler (1964), the model also forecast large areas of grassland 

in New England. Optimizing the fire parameters is possible when a small area is 

being simulated. For example, King et al. (2013) were able to significantly improve 

MC1 simulation of the fire regime at Wind Cave National Park by adjusting fire 

occurrence parameters and making a few small alterations to the model code. It is 

unclear, however, whether the various fire regimes of a continent can be sufficiently 

calibrated by using only 16 parameters representing just eight physiognomic types. 

The correlation between MC1 estimates of streamflow and gage measurements 

is not necessarily a good indication of model skill because both MC1 and the stream 

gages were responding to precipitation, and some correlation was to be expected. 

MC1, however, was not designed to be a hydrology model, and its hydrologic algorithms are relatively simplistic. It operates at a monthly time-step, which is coarse 

relative to most hydrology models. It does not simulate unsaturated flow through 

soil and instead uses a simple “bucket model,” where each soil layer needs to be 

saturated before any water moves to the next layer below. Determination of the 

water-holding capacity for each layer is based on the soil texture and organic matter 

fraction calculated by the model. MC1 does not simulate routing of water through 

the watershed. Streamflow is calculated by simply summing streamflow values of 

individual grid cells within the drainage basin. Snow accumulation and melt are 

modeled as simple linear functions of temperature thresholds.

In other words, MC1’s ability to approximate streamflow reported by gages 

is dependent on MC1’s simulation of evapotranspiration (ET). We believe that the 

simplistic nature of MC1’s hydrologic algorithms is somewhat mitigated by MC1’s 

coarse time step. Therefore, when MC1 overestimates streamflow, we generally 

interpret it to mean that MC1 is underestimating ET in the basin. Conversely, when 

MC1 underestimates streamflow, we interpret it to mean that MC1 is overestimating ET in the basin. As was the case when we compared simulated carbon stocks 

with the NBCD2000 (Kellindorfer et al. 2012), comparing MC1 streamflow values 

with gage values is complicated by the fact that MC1 simulates ET driven by PNV, 

not actual vegetation. 

Although the MC1 hydrology is relatively simple and functions at a coarse time 

resolution, under some circumstances there can potentially be some advantages 

to using these data. MC1 does provide an indication of future hydrology patterns 
45

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

under a changing vegetation cover, which is something that some more sophisticated hydrology models do not provide. MC1 does provide hydrology data in 

synchrony with other time-varying ecosystem variables, such as carbon pools and 

fire. Also, it might be argued that, when looking at hydrology patterns for the mid 

21st century onward, a monthly time-step is probably about as good a resolution as 

can be reasonably simulated, given the large uncertainty in the magnitude, timing, 

and intensity of future precipitation. 

MC1 belongs to a class of models called dynamic global vegetation models 

(DGVMs). DGVMs were initially designed to study large-scale (continental to 

global) impacts of climate and land-use change on ecosystems of the world (Neilson 

and Running 1996). Early DGVMs generally were run at relatively coarse grids. 

For example, simulations of the conterminous United States for VEMAP model 

comparisons were done by using 0.5° resolution (Kittel et al. 2004). As simulations 

were run at smaller grid cell sizes, additional ecosystem processes not included in 

the original model have become more significant. Already mentioned are reinterpretations of the part_burn output variable and lack of cell-to-cell routing of water. 

Cell-to-cell spread of fire can also be significant at the smaller grid cell sizes. 

Currently, when MC1 simulates the occurrence of fires, they tend to happen over 

contiguous patches of cells because of autocorrelation of the weather data. When 

simulating an area by using small grid cells, it would be preferred to simulate fire 

spread between cells, where a cell not suitable for initial ignition is ignited through 

fire spread dynamics. Because MC1 simulates many thousands of grid cells and the 

model code is structured to run optimally on parallel processors, modifying MC1 

code to simulate cell-to-cell interaction is a difficult task. It would require overhauling the overall framework of code execution.

MC1 code and algorithms are continually updated by an active community of 

users. Because of the simulations performed for this report, multiple code updates 

and improvements have been made. A key improvement, in particular, is that MC1 

has been rewritten in C++, primarily for improved computational efficiency. The 

new version is called MC2. All versions of the code can be obtained at the MC1 

DGVM users website (https://sites.google.com/site/mc1dgvmusers/). Further, new 

applications of MC1 and MC2 using new climate input datasets and new calibrations are ongoing. The results of those simulations should be considered for use in 

research and assessments.

Acknowledgments

We thank James Strittholt and the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI). Much of 

the early work for this project was conducted at the CBI Corvallis office under a 
46

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

collaboration agreement. We thank Dominique Bachelet (CBI) for her generous and 

collegial discussions and review of an early draft of the manuscript. We thank Ken 

Ferschweiller (CBI) for his assistance with MC1 code and downscaling scripts. We 

also thank David King (CBI) for informative discussions on simulating biogeography and fires with dynamic global vegetation models. Computing facilities and support for John B. Kim was provided by the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest 

Research Station and the Western Wildlands Environmental Threat Assessment 

Center.

English Equivalents

1 millimeter (mm) = 0.0394 inch

1 meter (m) = 3.28 feet

1 kilometer (km) = 0.621 mile

1 square meter (m2) = 10.76 square feet

1 square kilometer (km2) = 0.386 square mile

1 cubic meter (m3) = 35.3 cubic feet

1 gram (g) = 0.0352 ounce

1 teragram (tg) = 2.205 x 109 pounds

1 petagram (pg) = 2.205 x 1012 pounds

1 pascal = 1.45 x 10-4 pounds per square inch

1 kilopascal (kpa) = 0.145 pounds per square inch

 (1.8 × °C) + 32 = °F 

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nd ed. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. 370 p.
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Appendix 1: Description of the Data Files

All data are in latitudes and longitudes. Grids consist of 720 rows by 1,392 columns. Each grid cell is 5 arc-minutes in width and in latitude and longitude, which 

corresponds to about 8 km at mid-latitude. The bounding coordinates of the rectangular simulated area are 85.0 to 25.0 latitude, -52.0 to -168.0 in longitude. Datum for 

the dataset is the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83).

Data are stored in NetCDF format. NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) is 

a set of interfaces for array-oriented data access and a freely distributed collection 

of data access libraries for C, Fortran, C++, Java, and other languages. The NetCDF 

libraries support a machine-independent format for representing scientific data. 

Together, the interfaces, libraries, and format support the creation, access, and 

sharing of scientific data. Our reasons for using NetCDF include (1) it is good at 

handling multiple variables and multiple dimensions; (2) NetCDF files are selfdescribing and portable; (3) NetCDF files are accessible multiple ways including 

the access libraries mentioned above and ArcMap tools. For more information on 

NetCDF, see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/#documentation.

Climate files are organized so that the data are in three-dimensional matrices: 

time × latitude × longitude. The unit of the time dimension is 1 month. The soil data 

file is organized so that the data are in a three-dimensional matrix, band × latitude 

× longitude, where the band dimension consists of 10 soil attributes: mineral_depth 

(mm), sand[surface] (percentage), sand[intermediate] (percentage), sand[deep] 

(percentage), clay[surface] (percentage), clay[intermediate] (percentage), clay[deep] 

(percentage), rock_fragment_mineral[surface] (percentage), rock_fragment_

mineral[intermediate] (percentage), and rock_fragment_mineral[deep] (percentage). 

The three depths correspond to surface 0 to 50 cm, intermediate 50 to 150 cm, 

and deep ≥ 150 cm. MC1 output variables are also available as three-dimensional 

matrices, time × latitude × longitude, where the unit of the time dimension is a year.
55

The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

Appendix 2: Obtaining Copies of the Data

Input and output data files can be obtained from an anonymous ftp site: ftp://gcc.

fsl.orst.edu/MC1/8K_Version_165_MC1_2012_Climate/. There are two subdirectories “Inputs” and “Outputs.” “Inputs” includes all the climate data files for all 

scenarios and “Outputs” includes all variables coming out of the MC1 model. All 

files are in NetCDF format and are compliant with the climate and forecast (CF) 

metadata convention standards. Additional metadata files in the Extensible Markup 

Language (XML) will be included to correspond with each NetCDF file and these 

will conform to the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) 

standards. Documentation for NetCDF can be found at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/

software/netcdf/docs/. Utilities for reading NetCDF files can be found at http://nco.

sourceforge.net/ and at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/fan_utils.html.

Inputs

Under the “Inputs” directory are directories for all nine future climate projections 

as well as one for historical climate data. In each of these are separate files for each 

of the climate variables: ppt (precipitation), Tmax (average of daily maximum two 

meter temperatures per month), Tmin (average of daily minimum two meter temperatures per month), tmp (average temperature at two meters above land surface), 

and vpr (average monthly surface vapor pressure).

Outputs

MC1 can potentially output more than 900 annual or monthly variables, but only 

25 annual variables are included. Under the “Outputs” directory are subdirectories 

for all of the different output variable types. The variable types and numbers 

of variables saved include biogeography (two variables), fire (two variables), 

leaf_area_index (two variables), carbon_stock (twelve variables), carbon_fluxes 

(four variables), and hydrology (three variables). Within each variable-type there are 

two files for each future climate projection, with and without fire suppression. For 

example, under the carbon_fluxes directory for the CSIRO A1B projection there are 

two files: csiro_a1b_c_fluxes.nc (for the fire-suppression run) and csiro_a1b_nfs_c_

fluxes.nc (for the no-fire-suppression run). 
56

GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-904 

Glossary

AGVeg—Aboveground vegetation carbon simulated by MC1.

ANUSPLIN—A package of programs often used to created gridded climate 

maps from weather station data. ANUSPLIN uses a thin plate spline surface fitting 

technique.

CRU—Climatic Research Unit. Our source for gridded historical global climate at 

a half-degree resolution.

CSIRO—The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization is 

Australia’s national science agency. The Mk 3.5 climate model developed at CSIRO 

is a source for future climate scenarios. 

GCM—General circulation models.

GHG—Greenhouse gas.

HadCM3—Hadley Centre Coupled Model, version 3. A climate model that is a 

source for future climate scenarios.

huss—Surface specific humidity.

IPCC—Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

HWSD – Harmonized World Soil Database.

MIROC—The Center for Climate System Research at the University of Tokyo. The 

MIROC 3.2 medres model is one of our sources for future climate scenarios.

NBCD2000—National Biomass and Carbon Dataset for the year 2000. 

NetCDF—Network Common Data Form. NetCDF is a set of software libraries and 

self-describing, machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, 

and sharing of array-oriented scientific data.

NAD83—North American Datum of 1983.

PP—A proprietary file format for meteorological data developed by the Met Office, 

the United Kingdom’s national weather service.

ppt—Monthly sum precipitation. 
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The Dynamic General Vegetation Model MC1 Over the United States and Canada at a 5-Arc-Minute Resolution

PRISM—Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model. A climate mapping system and our source for high-spatial-resolution (relative to CRU) 

gridded historical climate within the United States and parts of Canada. 

ps—Surface air pressure.

SRES—Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. Published by the IPCC. This contained a set of greenhouse gas emission scenarios.

Tmax—Monthly mean of daily maximum temperatures.

Tmean—Mean monthly temperature. 

Tmin—Monthly mean of daily minimum temperatures. 

vpr—Vapor pressure.
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