The ability to translate projected variations in climatic conditions into ecosystem responses can provide valuable information to natural resource managers. Whether it is preparing for a summer fire season or spring floods, adequate knowledge of the magnitude and direction of future conditions saves time, money and valuable resources. A combination of space and ground based observations have significantly improved our ability to manage resources. However, these observations provide information about the past or at best current conditions. While this information is useful, many resource managers have to make decisions for the coming season, often 3-6 months in advance.
Simulation models are often the best tools to carry forward the spatio-temporal memory information.
Such a system would allow us to determine vulnerabilities of different socio-economic and resource systems, and help in mitigating potential impacts. The function of the BFS is to produce short to medium term forecasts of specific land surface ecosystem variables, chosen to provide useful information for resource management. These variables include cumulative water yield, soil moisture, forest fire risk, and selected agricultural productivity indices provided over time horizons of daily, weekly and monthly up through approximately 90 days. A brief review of each of the components is given below. The models have been adapted for all major biomes exploiting their unique eco-physiological principles such as drought resistance, cold tolerance etc.