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NGEET / fates

repository for the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES)
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clean up and simplify some allometry functions #522

Open rgknox opened 5 years ago

rgknox commented 5 years ago

Some of the functions describing allometry are unecessarily complicated.

1) We have two functions that effectively do the same calculation of leaf biomass. The generic diameter and height power-function for leaf-biomass can reproduce the results of the "Saldiarriaga" function. The only difference is that Saldarriaga takes into account the wood density, however since we treat wood density as a constant, that information could be pre-computed into one of the generic power-law parameters.

https://github.com/NGEET/fates/blob/master/biogeochem/FatesAllometryMod.F90#L1283 https://github.com/NGEET/fates/blob/master/biogeochem/FatesAllometryMod.F90#L1221

2) We also perform unit conversions in some functions that assume the parameters have been defined for a total biomass [kg], and in some functions the input parameters are assumed to define pools in carbon biomass [kgC]. My inclination is to define all these "biomass" allometry functions to have parameters in units [kgC].

JunyanDing commented 5 years ago

Love this idea. We can define the function by the form of the allometric equation.

rgknox commented 2 years ago

This is still and issue, bump