Category
Environmental models
Capabilities
PROSUM is a dynamic process model that predicts nutrient uptake, net primary productivity and litterfall at monthly timesteps for a range of European natural and semi-natural ecosystems (including woodland, arable, heathland etc). It is based on law-of-the-minimum except that: (a) plants can store excess nutrients up to a stoichiometric limit (luxury uptake); and (b) rather than only modelling nutrient availability, nutrient acquisition is specifically modelled on the basis of soil exploration by roots and mycorrhizae. PROSUM uses the CSMP design pattern to allow easy integration with other dynamic models, and it uses modern Fortran's matrix-algebra capabilities to streamline the code and speed up execution.
Lifecycle
Development of PROSUM began in 2012 under the EU project SoilTrEC (Soil Transformations in European Catchments) as the plant productivity module within an Integrated Critical Zone (ICZ) model. Investment to date approx 1 person-year.
Uniqueness
PROSUM is unique in being able to simulate all types of terrestrial vegetation (e.g. arable, forest, garrigue) using a simple Theoretical Crop Production approach that applies growth-limiting and growth-reducing factors to the potential productivity. Its novel capabilities include: (a) plants can store excess nutrients; (b) nutrient acquisition and availability are modelled, so that effects of mycorrhizae and root exudates are specifically included; (c) using the CSMP design pattern allows easy integration with other dynamic models; and (d) using Fortran's matrix-algebra capabilities streamlines the code and speeds up execution.
Partners
PROSUM was developed by UKCEH, and integrated into the Integrated Crictical Zone (ICZ) model in collaboration with Technical University of Crete (Nikos Nikolaides) and Delft Hydraulics (Johannes Valstar).
Access
PROSUM is open access: available to use at no cost by request to the model owner.
Funding sources
Development of PROSUM was funded by the EU FP7 SoilTrEC project.
Users
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PROSUM is used by UKCEH and other researchers.
Last updated
24 March 2023 14:11
