The responses of net primary production (NPP) to different climate scenarios with Biome-BGC model in oasis areas along the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, China

The scientific community has been interested in the responses of vegetation to global change at regional and global scales. Many models have been developed to study the responses in terms of primary productivity. The ecosystem model, Biome-BGC, simulates the storage and fluxes of water, carbon, and nitrogen within the vegetation, litter, and soil components of a terrestrial ecosystem and can be used to quantify effect on net primary production (NPP) under different climate scenarios. This study was conducted in oasis areas along the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, China with an arid climate. Ten sites were selected to test Biome-BGC model for its feasibility in the study areas. The model was proven not suitable to the desert ecosystem. After ecological and meteorological parameters were modified for each of the vegetation covers we applied the model to four sites that present agricultural, shrub, grasslands and mixed forest ecosystems. By using modified Biome-BGC model, we simulated the response of NPP with different land surface covers to four designed climate scenarios.