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ISIMIP2b Protocol Changes

ISIMIP2b Protocol Changes

Lakes: Variables icestart, iceend and icedur removed

Aug. 8, 2019

The variables icestart, iceend, and icedur have been deleted. Since there are already the daily variables lakeicefrac and icethick, there is no need to add another variable, because the start, end, and duration of ice cover can be derived from those daily variables.

Lakes: Depth resolution

Aug. 8, 2019

For depth-varying variables, data should be provided either as fully-resolved vertical profiles, or, if that is not possible, as a mean of the epilimnion or mixed layer (“mean epi”), and mean of the hypolimnion (“mean hypo”).

Biomes: New variables added

Aug. 8, 2019

In the biomes sector, the variables Total carbon mass in Soil Poll (soilc) and Carbon loss due to peat burning (somcfire) have been added. Values for evaporation from canopy (interception), water evaporation from soil and transpiration should be provided at pft-level if the model allows it.

Terrestrial biodiversity: Species-richness variables added

Aug. 8, 2019

The variables Amphibian species richness (amphibiansr), Terrestrial bird species richness (birdsr), and Terrestrial mammal species richness (mammalsr) have been added to the protocol.

Permafrost: New variables added

Aug. 8, 2019

In the permafrost sector, the variables Total carbon mass in Soil Poll (soilc) and Carbon loss due to peat burning (somcfire) have been added.

Water: Variables ptotuse and ptotww added

Aug. 8, 2019

The variables Total water demand (=potential water withdrawal) (ptotww) and Total potential water consumption (ptotuse) have been added.

Lakes: Thermal stratification and Lake ice cover reported in new binary variables

Aug. 8, 2019

The thermal stratification and lake ice cover will be reported in the binary variables strat and ice, resp., for a given grid cell. The variables stratstart, stratend and stratdur were removed.

Chapter on sector-specific implementation of scenario design dissolved

Aug. 8, 2019

The information from this chapter was moved completely to chapter 1 (“Scenario design”).

Climate-input data description adapted

Aug. 8, 2019

The reference to publication describing the new bias-correction method for ISIMIP3 has been added.

All sectors: Exp. IX removed

Aug. 8, 2019

The optional experiment IX was a simulation to test the sensitivity of the improved bias-adjustment and statistical downscaling method that will be used in ISIMIP3. Due to the relatively large effort required to process the GCM data with the new methodology (for all GCMs and all time periods) and the low interest by modellers to run the experime ...

“Coastal infrastructure” sector renamed to “coastal systems”

Aug. 8, 2019

The sector name has been changed to reflect that not only infrastructure is impacted by rising mean and extreme sea levels.

Fisheries and marine ecosystems: New experiments added

Aug. 8, 2019

The sector-specific experiments Ia-Ic and VIIIa have been added.

Specification of bioenergy crops updated

Aug. 8, 2019

A description of the individual bioenergy crops from MAgPIE has been added.

Water: Interpretation of human-influence scenarios clarified

Feb. 28, 2019

For the purpose of the global water sector, “human influences” is defined as human interference directly with the hydrological fluxes of the water cycle for the purposes of any one or several of: water management (e.g. dams/reservoirs), irrigation, domestic water use, manufacturing and livestock production. I.e ...

Lakes: Several variables added

Feb. 28, 2019

The variables surface temperature, bottom temperature, upward shortwave radiation flux at the lake-atmosphere interface, sediment upward heat flux at the lake-sediment interface, turbulent diffusivity of heat, and light extinction coefficient were added to the protocol. We also added a suggestion for how to parameterize the light extinction coef ...

Permafrost: Information on spin-up runs added

Feb. 28, 2019

The description of spin-up runs has been further specified. Spin-up runs should be using pre-industrial climate and year 1860 levels of “other human influences”.

Forests: Management scenarios changed

Feb. 28, 2019

The new forest management scenarios specify different silvicultural measures that can be simulated to explore the effects of stand-scale forest management decisions in line with adaptation, mitigation and multi-purpose management objectives. The scenarios follow a common framework developed in the FORMASAM project but are specific for each of th ...

Information on processing of climate input-data removed from sector overviews

Feb. 28, 2019

Information on the recycling of pre-industrial control climate-input data was removed from the scenario-overview table in each sector. This information was moved to the input-data section.

Column order in output variable tables harmonized

Feb. 28, 2019

We rearranged the order of some columns in the output variable tables, so they are consistent across sectors.

Lakes: Diagnostic for lake stratification added

Feb. 28, 2019

A diagnostic to calculate lake stratification following Millero & Poisson (1981) was added.

Biomes, permafrost: Variables to be reported on higher resolution

Feb. 28, 2019

In the permafrost and biomes sector, several variables are to be reported on a higher (daily) resolution, if possible.

Agriculture: Sector name changed

Feb. 28, 2019

The agricultural sector was renamed to “Agriculture (crop modelling)” to be consistent with the ISIMIP2a protocol.

Terrestrial biodiversity: Sector renamed

Feb. 28, 2019

We renamed the biodiversity sector to “terrestrial biodiversity”, because marine ecosystems belong to the fisheries sector.

New experiments with RCP8.5 and RCP6.0 added

Feb. 28, 2019

As decided at the ISIMIP Strategy Group Meeting, we added two new experiments, VIII and IX, to all sectors. Exp. VIII is driven by RCP8.5 climate input data to analyze high-end impacts, while the optional exp. IX uses RCP6.0 climate input data that were bias-adjusted and statistically downscaled with an improved method that shall be used in ISIM ...

Agriculture: Nitrate cycling added

Feb. 28, 2019

We have added new output variables to the agricultural sector to report on nitrogen cycling.

Instructions on file naming and formatting added

Feb. 28, 2019

We added instructions on how to split time-series data into different files. Additionally, we provide further information and examples on file naming and help on data formatting on our website and added the link to the protocol.

Biomes, forests: Sensitivity experiment IIIc added

Feb. 28, 2019

We added a co2-sensitivity run with RCP8.5 climate but co2 fixed at 2005-levels to the biomes and forest protocol in the table on sector-specific simulation runs.

Background information on bias correction added

Feb. 28, 2019

We added some explanatory text to describe how the ISIMIP2b bias adjustment was conducted compared to the Fast Track. In addition, RCP6.0 projections were bias-adjusted using a new method, which is planned to be used in ISIMIP3. A paper describing the new method has been submitted and is expected to go online soon ...

Water: Bioenergy crop variables added

Feb. 28, 2019

We added bioenergy crop yields as output variables as part of the additions to the water protocol about reporting crop yields. The variables have been added to the water sector protocol, but not to the biomes protocol to avoid adding many new variables which are only relevant for those models including irrigation etc ...

Energy protocol temporarily retracted

Nov. 8, 2018

The ISIMIP2b protocol for the energy sector has been temporarily removed from the website, since it is outdated. It will be replaced by an updated version soon.

Forests: Variables renamed and biomass variables split

Nov. 5, 2018

In the forest protocol (Table 21), some variables have been renamed and biomass variables have been split up in above-ground and below-ground values.

Variable-naming conventions modified

Nov. 5, 2018

The naming conventions in the agriculture, biomes, forest and biodiversity (and water, if agricultural variables are supplied) sector have been changed. Additional specifiers (e.g., for crops, irrigation settings, plant functional types) are now to be separated by hyphens, as described in Table 26. Therefore, variable names must consist of only ...

Distinction of individual components of total water storage as additional output variables

Nov. 5, 2018

The output variable total water storage (tws), which has already been included in the global-water sector protocol of ISIMIP2b, should be disaggregated into its individual components. Being able to analyse single storage compartments is very helpful for: a) understanding the behaviour of the model and the physics behind it; b) to explore potenti ...

Error corrected in caption of Table 6

Nov. 5, 2018

In the caption of Table 6, there was an error that is not corrected. Originally, future projections accounting for changes in socio-economic drivers were attributed to Group 2, when, in fact, they belong to Group 3.

Planting information on forest sites updated

Nov. 5, 2018

Planting guidelines (Table 20) for forest sites have been adjusted after consultation with site PIs, for consistency with the PROFOUND data paper. The older planting guidelines remain valid for older/existing runs.

Biodiversity protocol updated

Nov. 5, 2018

The protocol for the terrestrial biodiversity sector has been updated. It elaborates how species distribution models are used and that effects of land-use changes on biodiversity are not considered. Some variable names have changed and are described now in more detail.

Crop yields as optional outputs of water models

Nov. 5, 2018

Agricultural variables can be reported optionally in all water models that also simulate crop yields.

Explanation why SSP scenarios are not mentioned in file names

Nov. 5, 2018

The following explanation why SSPs are not mentioned in file names has been added to section 2.5: "As ISIMIP2b Group 3 only considers SSP2 and no other socio-economic storylines, the SSP scenario is not explicitly mentioned in the file names, although the changes in land-use patterns, etc. certainly not only depend on the RCP (due to the account ...

C3 grass added to forest species abbreviation table

Nov. 5, 2018

C3 grass has been added to the forest species abbreviation table (Table 22).

Updates to terrestrial-biodiversity protocol

June 25, 2018

The time horizons for which simulations on terrestrial biodiversity are to be run have been updated. Additionally, the interpretation of output variables may be different in runs based on the MaxEnt algorithm.

Descriptions of human-influence and land-use scenarios in crop simulations updated

June 25, 2018

Descriptions of human-influence and land-use scenarios in crop simulations were updated to avoid potential misunderstandings. Crop-model simulations should be provided as pure crop runs (i.e., assuming that each crop grows everywhere). Yet, if a models contains different varieties of the same crop (e.g ...

Spelling of forest site names standardized

June 25, 2018

We standardized the forest site names within the protocol. Now, all spaces and underscores have been replaced by hyphens. Site names will be written in lower case and do not contain special characters (Hyytiälä -> Hyytiala).

Attribution of harvesting events

June 25, 2018

To resolve potential double harvests within one year, crop yields should be reported per growing and not per calendar year. The unit of the time dimension of the NetCDF v4 output file is thus “growing seasons since YYYY-01-01 00:00:00”. Cumulative growing season variables as, e.g., actual evapotranspiration or precipitation are to be accumulated ...

Typos in crop simulation scenarios corrected

June 25, 2018

Table 25 of the protocol on ISIMIP2b scenarios for global crop simulations contained two typos: (1) The historical period of exp. V is identical to Exp. I.(2) The management scenario of exp. VII is "rcp60soc".

Correction of output variable names in TRM & biodiversity sectors

March 5, 2018

Output variable names in the TRM & biodiversity sectors have been corrected to include hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_).

Changes to file-naming conventions

March 5, 2018

The file-naming conventions for output file has been updated to include a tag to indicate the target climate data set for the bias correction. The standard file name now has the form: <modelname>_<gcm>_<bias-correction>_<climate-scenario>_<soc‐scenario>_<co2sens‐scenarios>_<variable>_<region>_< ...

New output variables added to biomes, permafrost & lakes sectors

March 5, 2018

In the biomes & permafrost sectors, the output variables above-ground biomass and below-ground biomass have been added.In the lakes sector, the output variables icethick, snowthick,Icetemp, snowtemp, sensheatf, latentheatf, momf, lwup, lakeheatf, & albedo have been added.

Update to lakes protocol

Dec. 18, 2017

Includes definition of lake-depth and lake-fraction input data sets, and specific instructions for local and global lake models respectively.

Biomes: definition of burntarea updated to avoid confusion

Dec. 7, 2017

The definition of the biomes output variable has been updated to "Area percentage of grid cell that has burned at any time of the given day/month/year (for daily/monthly/annual resolution)".

Lakes protocol now as separate chapter

Nov. 29, 2017

The lakes sector protocol is now presented in a separate chapter.

Additional biomes runs

Nov. 28, 2017

CO2 sensitivity runs have been added to the biomes sector covering:fixed human influences at 1860 levels (1860soc) with picontrol climate (1661-2299)fixed human influences at 1860 levels (1860soc) with historical & RCP2.6 climateCO2 concentration fixed at 2005 levels (2005co2) with RCP6.0 climatefixed human influences at 1860 levels (1860soc ...

Forest sector: additional runs & change of scenario names

Nov. 28, 2017

CO2 sensitivity runs have been added to the forest sector covering:fixed human influences at 1860 levels (1860soc) with picontrol climate (1661-2299)fixed human influences at 1860 levels (1860soc) with historical & RCP2.6 climateCO2 concentration fixed at 2005 levels (2005co2) with RCP6.0 climatefixed human influences at 1860 levels (1860soc ...

Addition of terrestrial biodiversity sector

July 20, 2017

In addition to small corrections in other parts of the protocol, the terrestrial biodiversity sector was added.

Updates to lakes & forests protocols

May 23, 2017

Further specificiations have been added to the lakes protocol, which is now included as a sub-chapter of Water. In the forest protocol, the management specifications have been updated, and some variable-names corrected.

Update of forest and health (TRM)-sector protocols

March 3, 2017

The health (temperature-related mortality) and forest-sector protocols have been updated to reflect the latest plans in those sectors.

Addition of lake-model simulations to regional and global water sector

March 3, 2017

Additional specifications have been added to the regional and global water sector protocol to accommodate the simulation of lakes.

Health: Updates to temperature-related mortality protocol

Jan. 30, 2017

Changes have been made to the health (temperature-related mortality) scenario table to reflect latest developments.

File identifier specifications updated

Jan. 30, 2017

A new file identifier <co2_scenario> has been added. This identifier should be set to co2 unless the experiment specifically requires the identifier 2005co2 (in this case that CO2 levels are kept constant at 2005 levels.A table of possible file identifier has been added to the end of section 3 of the protocol ...

Description of future water abstraction data updated

Jan. 30, 2017

The description of the future water abstraction for industrial and domestic uses data has been updated and now reads: "For modelling groups that do not have their own representation, we provide files containing the multi-model mean (from WaterGAP, PCR-GLOBWB and H08) for domestic and industrial uses under SSP2 from the Water Futures and Solutio ...

Preferred regions added to protocol

Jan. 30, 2017

A table of preferred regions has been added to the information for all sectors. However, regional results are welcomed for all world regions, so long as they follow the ISIMIP2b protocol.

Clarification of future water abstraction

Jan. 11, 2017

The specifications for future water abstraction for domestic and industrial uses has been updated. Since the WFaS data is only available until 2050, the values should be kept constant from 2050 onwards. Also, RCP4.5 data should be used for the RCP2.6 simulations because RCP2.6 was not considered by WFaS. The difference is expected to be small ...

Use of <variable> identifier in file names for biomes & permafrost models

Jan. 11, 2017

The identifiers <variable> might also contain information about the plant functional type (in the biomes and permafrost sectors). The pft naming is model-specific and hence has to be reported in theimpact-model database entries for each model (www.isimip.org/impactmodels). In the forestry sector the identifier <variable> might contai ...

Update to input data for oceans

Dec. 7, 2016

The list of input-data variables in Table 3 for oceans has been updated. New variables include:sea-water z velocity (wo)Small & Large Phytoplankton Productivity (ssp, lpp) Diazotroph Primary Productivity (dpp)Diazotroph Carbon Concentration (dphy)Sea Ice Fraction (sic)Large size-class particulate organic carbon pool (goc)Photosynthetically-a ...

Change of pre-industrial CO2 to 286ppm

Dec. 6, 2016

In order to ensure a smooth transition in CO2 concentration from the pre-industrial to the historical period, the CO2 concentration in the historical period has been reset to 286ppm (the CO2 concentration for the first year of the historical period 1861).

Water: 5 new ouput variables and clarifications

Dec. 6, 2016

Five new output variables have been added to the water-sector table 9: total water storage (tws), total actual water consumption (atotuse), total actual water withdrawal (atotww),groundwater runoff (qg),groundwater recharge (qr).Units and descriptions can be found in Table 9 in the 'Regional & global water' chapter of the protocol ...

Biomes & Permafrost: Additional output variables N20 & CH4

Dec. 6, 2016

Two new output variables have been added for the biomes sector: N2O emissions into atmosphere and CH4 emissions into atmosphere

Addition of planting year, anthesis dates & years, and maturity dates & years as output variables for crop simulations

Nov. 15, 2016

Five new output variables have been added for the crop simulations (table 17 of the protocol): Actual planting year (plant-year_<crop>): the year of plantingAnthesis dates (anth-day_<crop>): day of year of plantingYear of anthesis (anth-year_<crop>): year of anthesisMaturity dates (maty-day_<crop>): day of year of maturit ...

biomes & forests: clitter and csoil not PFT-specific

Nov. 9, 2016

The biomes and forests output variables clitter and csoil were previously requested to be PFT specific. Both variables should now be provided as totals for all PFTs.

Health-sector scenarios made consistent

Nov. 9, 2016

In section 4.7.1 correction of scenario-naming scheme, and clearer description of human-use scenarios.

Clarification of land-use data

Nov. 9, 2016

The description of the available land-use data has been refined (section 2.2), including a clear description of the three levels of aggregation offered.