ISIMIP3a simulation round simulation protocol - Biomes

Introduction
Scenarios & Experiments
- Scenario definitions
- Experiments
Input data
Output data
- Output variables
Reporting model results
References

Introduction

General concept

The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) provides a framework for the collation of a consistent set of climate impact data across sectors and scales. It also provides a unique opportunity for considering interactions between climate change impacts across sectors through consistent scenarios.

ISIMIP is intended to be structured in successive rounds connected to the different phases of the climate model intercomparison CMIP (ISIMIP Mission & Implementation document).

The main components of the ISIMIP framework are:

A common set of climate and other forcing data which will be distributed via a central database;
A common modelling protocol to ensure consistency across sectors and scales in terms of data, format and scenario set-up;
A central archive where the output data will be collected and made available to the scientific community.

ISIMIP3a

Historical model evaluation and attribution runs

The ISIMIP3a part of the third round framework is dedicated to i) impact model evaluation and improvement and ii) detection and attribution of observed impacts according to the framework of IPCC AR5 Working Group II Chapter 18. To this end all simulations are forced by observed climate and socio-economic information and a de-trended version of the observed climate allowing for the generation of a “no climate change” baseline (counterfactual).

You can find the ISIMIP3b protocol, which is dedicated to a quantification of climate-related risks at different levels of climate change and socio-economic conditions, here.

Simulation protocol

In this protocol we describe the scenarios & experiments in ISIMIP3a simulation round, the different input datasets, the output variables, and how to report model results specifically for Biomes. An overview of all sectors can be found at protocol.isimip.org.

Throughout the protocol we use specifiers that denote a particular scenario, experiment, variable or other parameter. We use these specifiers in the tables below, in the filenames of the input data sets, and ask you to use the same specifiers in your output files. More on reporting data can be found at the end of this document.

Model versioning

To ensure consistency between ISIMIP3a and ISIMIP3b as well as the different experiments within a simulation round, we require that modelling groups use the same version of an impact model for the experiments in ISIMIP3a and ISIMIP3b. If you cannot fulfill this, please indicate that by using a suffix for your model name (e.g. simple version numbering: MODEL-v1, MODEL-v2 or following semantic versioning: MODEL-2.0.0, see also reporting model results).

This versioning does not only apply to changes in the computational logic of the model, but also to input parameters, calibration or setup. If model versions are not reported, we will name them according to the simulation round (e.g. MODEL-isimip3a). We require the strict versioning to ensure that differences between model results are fully attributable to the changes in model forcings.

Scenarios & Experiments

Scenario definitions

Table 1: Climate scenario specifiers (`climate-scenario`).
Scenario specifier	Description
obsclim	Observed climate and CO₂ forcing used for model evaluation and the detection and attribution task.
spinclim	Detrended version of the observed climate forcing used to spin-up the simulations based on a stable 1900 climate (see explanation below for details regarding the design of the spin-up)
counterclim	Detrended version of the observed climate forcing used for the "no climate change" baseline simulations in the context of the detection and attributions task.

Table 2: Socio-economic scenario specifiers (`soc-scenario`).
Scenario specifier	Description
histsoc	Varying direct human influences in the historical period (1850-2014) (e.g. observed changes in historical land use, nitrogen deposition and fertilizer input, fishing effort). Please label your model run `histsoc` even if it only partly accounts for varying direct human forcings while another part of the the direct human forcing is considered constant or is ignored.
2015soc	Fixed year-2015 direct human influences (e.g. land use, nitrogen deposition and fertilizer input, fishing effort). Please label your simulations `2015soc` if they do not at all account for historical changes in direct human forcing, but they do represent constant year-2015 levels of direct human forcing for at least some direct human forcings.
nat	No direct human influences (naturalized run). Please only label your model run `nat` if it does not at all account for any direct human forcings, including e.g. human land use.

Table 3: Sensitivity scenario specifiers (`sens-scenario`).
Scenario specifier	Description
default	For all experiments other than the sensitivity experiments.
1901co2	CO₂ concentration fixed at 1901 levels as a deviation from the “obsclim” climate + CO₂ forcing.

General note regarding sensitivity experiments

The sensitivity experiments are meant to be "artificial" deviations from the default settings. So for example if your model does not at all account for changes in CO₂ concentrations (no option to switch it on or off) the run should be labeled as “default” in the sensitivity specifier of the file name even if the run would be identical to the 1901co2 sensitivity setting.

The particular sensitivity scenario for an experiment is given in the experiments table below. For most experiments no sensitivity scenario is given, so the default label applies.

Experiments

Table 4: Experiment set-up: Each experiment is specified by the climate forcing (CF) and the Direct Human Forcing (DHF).
Experiment	Short description	Transition from Spin-up to experiment 1850-1900, only if spin-up is needed	Historical 1901-2018
model evaluation histsoc 1st priority	CF: No climate change before 1901, observed forcing afterwards; constant 1850 levels of CO₂ before 1850 and based on observations afterwards	spinclim	obsclim
model evaluation histsoc 1st priority	DHF: Fixed 1850 levels of direct human forcing before 1850, varying direct human influences according to observations afterwards	histsoc	histsoc
model evaluation 2015soc 1st priority	CF: No climate change before 1901, observed forcing afterwards; constant 1850 levels of CO₂ before 1850 and based on observations afterwards	spinclim	obsclim
model evaluation 2015soc 1st priority	DHF: Fixed 2015 levels of direct human forcing for the entire time period	2015soc	2015soc
model evaluation nat 2nd priority	CF: No climate change before 1901, observed forcing afterwards; 1850 levels of CO₂ before 1850 and based on observations afterwards	spinclim	obsclim
model evaluation nat 2nd priority	DHF: No direct human influences	nat	nat
counterfactual climate histsoc 1st priority	CF: de-trended observational climate forcing (counterfactual "no climate change" situation) + fixed CO₂ concentration at 1901 level	"histsoc" version of the transition period of the model evaluation run	counterclim
counterfactual climate histsoc 1st priority	DHF: 1850 levels of direct human forcing before 1850, varying direct human influences according to observations afterwards		histsoc
counterfactual climate 2015soc 1st priority	CF: de-trended observational climate forcing (counterfactual "no climate change" situation)	"2015soc" version of the transition period of the model evaluation run	counterclim
counterfactual climate 2015soc 1st priority	DHF: fixed 2015 levels of direct human influences for the entire time period		2015soc
counterfactual climate nat 2nd priority	CF: de-trended observational climate forcing (counterfactual "no climate change" situation) + fixed CO₂ concentration at 1901 level	"nat" version of the transition period of the model evaluation run	counterclim
counterfactual climate nat 2nd priority	DHF: No direct human influences		nat
CO₂ sensitivity histsoc 2nd priority	CF: no climate change before 1901, observed forcing afterwards + fixed CO₂ concentration at 1901 level	"histsoc" version of the transition period of the model evaluation run	obsclim Sensitivity scenario: 1901co2
CO₂ sensitivity histsoc 2nd priority	DHF: 1850 levels of direct human forcing before 1850, varying direct human influences according to observations afterwards		histsoc
CO₂ sensitivity 2015soc 2nd priority	CF: no climate change before 1901, observed forcing afterwards + fixed CO₂ concentration at 1901 level	"2015soc" version of the transition period of the model evaluation run	obsclim Sensitivity scenario: 1901co2
CO₂ sensitivity 2015soc 2nd priority	DHF: fixed 2015 levels of direct human influences for the entire time period		2015soc

Note regarding models requiring spin-up

For models requiring spin-up, we provide 100 years of spinclim data which is identical with the first 100 years of the counterclim data (files climate/atmosphere/spinclim/<dataset>/<dataset>_spinclim_<variable>_global_daily_<start-year>_<start-year>.nc). If more than 100 years of spin-up are needed, these data can be repeated as often as needed. Use historical CO2 concentration and varying DHF, for the transition period from spin-up to the start of the experiment (1850-1900). When using a longer spin-up period that (nominally) extends back further than 1850, please keep CO2 concentration and DHF constant at 1850 level until reaching the year corresponding to 1850.

Input data

The base directory for input data at DKRZ is:

/work/bb0820/ISIMIP/ISIMIP3a/InputData/

Further information on accessing ISIMIP data can be found at ISIMIP - getting started.

Some of the datasets are tagged as mandatory. This does not mean that the data must be used in all cases, but if your models uses input data of this kind, we require to use the specified dataset. If an alterntive data set is used instead, we cannot consider it an ISIMIP simulation. If the mandatory label is not given, you may use alternative data (please document this clearly).

Climate forcing

Table 5: Climate and climate-related forcing data (`climate-forcing`).
Title	Specifier	Time period	Reanalysis	Bias adjustment target	Comments
GSWP3-W5E5	gswp3-w5e5	1901-2016	ERA5	GPCC, CRU	Combination of W5E5 for 1979-2016 with GSWP3 homogenized to W5E5 for 1901-1978. The homogenization reduces discontinuities at the 1978/1979 transition and was done using the ISIMIP3BASD v2.3 bias adjustment method.
GSWP3	gswp3	1901-2010	20CR	GPCC, GPCP, CPC-Unified, CRU, SRB	Dynamically downscaled and bias-adjusted 20th Century Reanalysis (20CR) from the Global Soil Wetness Project Phase 3 (GSWP3).

Table 6: Climate forcing variables for ISIMIP3a simulations (`climate-variable`).
Variable	Variable specifier	Unit	Resolution	Datasets
Atmospheric variables mandatory
Near-Surface Relative Humidity	hurs	%	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Near-Surface Specific Humidity	huss	kg kg-1	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Precipitation	pr	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Surface Air Pressure	ps	Pa	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Surface Downwelling Longwave Radiation	rlds	W m-2	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Surface Downwelling Shortwave Radiation	rsds	W m-2	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Near-Surface Wind Speed	sfcwind	m s-1	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Near-Surface Air Temperature	tas	K	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Daily Maximum Near-Surface Air Temperature	tasmax	K	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)
Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air Temperature	tasmin	K	0.5° grid daily	GSWP3 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2010) GSWP3-W5E5 (obsclim and counterclim, 1901-2016)

The climate forcing input files can be found using the following pattern:

climate/atmosphere/<climate-scenario>/<climate-forcing>/<climate-forcing>_<climate-scenario>_<climate-variable>_global_daily_<start-year>_<end-year>.nc

Greenhouse gas forcing

Table 7: Greenhouse gas forcing for ISIMIP3a simulation round.
Variable	Variable specifier	Unit	Resolution	Datasets
Atmospheric composition mandatory
Atmospheric CO2 concentration	`composition_atmosphere/co2/co2_historical_annual_1850_2018.txt`
Atmospheric CO2 concentration	co2	ppm	global annual	Meinshausen et al. (2011) for 1765-2005 and Dlugokencky & Tans (2019) from 2006-2018

Socioeconomic forcing

Table 8: Socioeconomic datasets for ISIMIP3a simulation round.
Dataset	Included variables (specifier)	Covered time period	Resolution	Reference/Source and Comments
Land use mandatory
Landuse totals	`socioeconomic/landuse/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_landuse-totals_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	share of the total cropland (cropland_total) all of the rainfed cropland (cropland_rainfed) all of the irrigated cropland (cropland_irrigated) share of managed pastures or rangeland (pastures)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual	Based on the HYDE 3.2 data set (Klein Goldewijk, 2016), but harmonized by Hurtt et al. (LUH2 v2h data set, see Hurtt, Chini, Sahajpal, Frolking, & et al, in review, see also https://luh.umd.edu).
Downscaling to 5 crops	`socioeconomic/landuse/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_landuse-5crops_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	share of rainfed/irrigated C4 annual crops (c4ann_rainfed, c4ann_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C3 perennial crops (c3per_rainfed, c3per_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C3 N-fixing crops (c3nfx_rainfed, c3nfx_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C4 annual crops (c4ann_rainfed, c4ann_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C4 perennial crops (c4per_rainfed, c4per_irrigated)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual	Based on the HYDE 3.2 data set (Klein Goldewijk, 2016), but harmonized by Hurtt et al. (LUH2 v2h data set, see Hurtt, Chini, Sahajpal, Frolking, & et al., in review, see also https://luh.umd.edu).
Downscaling to 15 crops	`socioeconomic/landuse/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_landuse-15crops_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	share of rainfed/irrigated maize (maize_rainfed, maize_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated rice (rice_rainfed, rice_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated oil crops (groundnut) (oil_crops_groundnut_rainfed, oil_crops_groundnut_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated oil crops (rapeseed) (oil_crops_rapeseed_rainfed, oil_crops_rapeseed_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated oil crops (soybean) (oil_crops_soybean_rainfed, oil_crops_soybean_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated oil crops (sunflower) (oil_crops_sunflower_rainfed, oil_crops_sunflower_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated pulses (pulses_rainfed, pulses_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated temperate cereals (temperate_cereals_rainfed, temperate_cereals_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated temperate roots (temperate_roots_rainfed, temperate_roots_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated tropical cereals (tropical_cereals_rainfed, tropical_cereals_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated tropical roots (tropical_roots_rainfed, tropical_roots_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C3 annual crops not covered by the above (others_c3ann_rainfed, others_c3ann_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C3 N-fixing crops not covered by the above (others_c3nfx_rainfed, others_c3nfx_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C3 perennial crops (c3per_rainfed, c3per_irrigated) share of rainfed/irrigated C4 perennial crops (c4per_rainfed, c4per_irrigated) share of pastures, both managed and rangeland (pastures)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual	The C4 perennial crops are not further downscaled from the "5 crops" data set and currently only include sugarcane. Similarly, the C3 perennial crops are not downscaled either. The data is derived from the "5 crops" LUH2 data, and the crops have been downscaled to 15 crops according to the ratios given by the Monfreda data set (Monfreda, Ramankutty, & Foley, 2008).
Managed pastures and rangeland	`socioeconomic/landuse/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_landuse-pastures_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	share of managed pastures (managed_pastures) share of rangeland (rangeland)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual	Based on the HYDE 3.2 data set (Klein Goldewijk, 2016), but harmonized by Hurtt et al. (LUH2 v2h data set, see Hurtt, Chini, Sahajpal, Frolking, & et al, in review., see also https://luh.umd.edu).
Urban areas	`socioeconomic/landuse/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_landuse-urbanareas_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	share of urban areas (urbanareas)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual	Based on the HYDE 3.2 data set (Klein Goldewijk, 2016), but harmonized by Hurtt et al. (LUH2 v2h data set, see Hurtt, Chini, Sahajpal, Frolking, & et al., in review, see also https://luh.umd.edu).
N-fertilizer mandatory
Nitrogen deposited by fertilizers on croplands	`socioeconomic/n-fertilizer/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_n-fertilizer-5crops_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	deposition of N through fertilizer on cropland with C3 annual crops (fertl_c3ann) C3 perennial crops (fertl_c3per) C3 N-fixing crops (fertl_c3nfx) C4 annual crops (fertl_c4ann) C4 perennial crops (fertl_c4per)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual (growing season)	Based on the LUH2 v2h data set (see Hurtt, Chini, Sahajpal, Frolking, & et al., in in review, see also https://luh.umd.edu).
N-deposition
Reduced nitrogen deposition	`socioeconomic/n-deposition/<soc_scenario>/ndep-nhx_<soc_scenario>_monthly_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	NHx deposition	1850-1900 1901-2016	0.5° grid monthly	Simulated by NCAR Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) during 1850-2014. Nitrogen deposition data was interpolated to 0.5° by 0.5° by the nearest grid. Data in 2015 and 2016 is assumed to be same as that in 2014 (Tian et al. 2018)
Oxidized nitrogen deposition	`socioeconomic/n-deposition/<soc_scenario>/ndep-noy_<soc_scenario>_monthly_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	NOy deposition	1850-1900 1901-2016	0.5° grid annual	Simulated by NCAR Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) during 1850-2014. Nitrogen deposition data was interpolated to 0.5° by 0.5° by the nearest grid. Data in 2015 and 2016 is assumed to be same as that in 2014 (Tian et al. 2018)
Reservoirs & dams
Reservoirs & dams	`socioeconomic/reservoir_dams/reservoirs-dams_1850_2025.xls`
	Unique ID representing a dam and its associated reservoir corresponding to GRanD/KSU IDs (ID) name (DAM_NAME) original location (LON_ORIG, LAT_ORIG) location adjusted to the DDM30 routing network (LON_DDM30, LAT_DDM30) upstream area in DDM30 (CATCH_SKM_DDM30) upstream area in GRanD (CATCH_SKM_GRanD) maximum storage capacity of reservoir (CAP_MCM) year of construction/commissioning (YEAR) alternative year may indicate a multi-year construction or secondary dam (ALT_YEAR) flag of correction if relocation was applied (FLAG_CORR) river name which the dam impounds (RIVER) height of dam (D_Hght_m) maximum inundation area of reservoir (R_Area_km2) length of reservoir (R_Lgth_km) main purpose(s) of dam (PURPOSE) source of information (SOURCE) other notes (COMMENTS)	1850-2025	0.5° grid and original coordinates (degree) annual	Lehner et al. (2011a, https://doi.org/10.7927/H4N877QK), Lehner et al. (2011b, https://dx.doi.org/10.1890/100125), and Jida Wang et al. (KSU/Kansas State University, personal communication). Because the data from KSU is yet unpublished, modeling teams using it are asked to offer co-authorship to the team at KSU on any resulting publications. Please contact info@isimip.org in case of questions.
Water abstraction
Water abstraction for domestic and industrial purposes	`socioeconomic/water_abstraction/[domw\|indw][w\|c]_<soc_scenario>_annual_<start-year>_<end-year>.nc`
	domestic and industrial water withdrawal and consumption (domww, domwc, indww, indwc)	1850-1900 1901-2018	0.5° grid annual	For modelling groups that do not have their own representation, we provide files containing the multi-model mean of domestic and industrial water withdrawal and consumption generated by WaterGAP, PCR-GLOBWB, and H08. This data is based ISIMIP2a varsoc simulations for 1901-2005, and on RCP6.0 simulations from the Water Futures and Solutions project (Wada et al., 2016, http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/175/2016/) for after 2005. Years before 1901 have been filled with the value for year 1901.
Forest management
Forest management mandatory	http://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.008
	stem numbers (stemno) tree species (species)	Bily Kriz: 1997-2015 Collelongo: 1992-2012 Hyytiälä: 1995-2011 KROOF: 1997-2010 Le Bray: 1986-2009 Peitz: 1948-2011 Solling-beech: 1967-2014 Solling-spruce: 1967-2014 Soro: 1944-2010	plot-specific annual	Reyer et al. 2019a, b management prescribes stem numbers remaining after harvest, management data is annual but not every year has data.
Wood harvesting	`socioeconomic/wood_harvesting/<variable>_<soc_scenario>_national_annual_<start_year>_<end_year>.nc`
	wood harvest area from primary forest land (primf-harv) wood harvest area from primary non forest land (primn-harv) wood harvest area from secondary mature forest land (secmf-harv) wood harvest area from secondary young forest land (secyf-harv) wood harvest area from secondary non forest land (secnf-harv) wood harvest biomass carbon from primary forest land (primf-bioh) wood harvest biomass carbon from primary non forest land (primn-bioh) wood harvest biomass carbon from secondary mature forest land (secmf-bioh) wood harvest biomass carbon from secondary young forest land (secyf-bioh) wood harvest biomass carbon from secondary non forest land (secnf-bioh)	1850-2017	national annual	Historic annual country-level wood harvesting data. Based on the LUH2 v2h Harmonization Data Set (see Hurtt, Chini et al. 2011; see also https://luh.umd.edu). Interpolated to a 0.5° grid using first-order conservative remapping and calculated over a fractional country mask (https://gitlab.pik-potsdam.de/isipedia/countrymasks/-/blob/master/) derived from ASAP-GAUL (https://data.europa.eu/euodp/data/dataset/jrc-10112-10004).
Population mandatory
Population 5' grid	`socioeconomic/pop/<soc_scenario>/population_<soc_scenario>_5arcmin_annual_<start-year>_<end-year>.nc`
	total number of people (popc) rural number of people (rurc) urban number of people (urbc)	1850-1900 1901-2020	5' grid annual	HYDE v3.2.1 (Klein Goldewijk et al., 2017). Decadal data prior to year 2000 have been linearly interpolated in time.
Population 0.5° grid	`socioeconomic/pop/<soc_scenario>/population_<soc_scenario>_30arcmin_annual_<start-year>_<end-year>.nc`
	total number of people (popc) rural number of people (rurc) urban number of people (urbc)	1850-1900 1901-2020	0.5° grid annual	HYDE v3.2.1 (Klein Goldewijk et al., 2017). Decadal data prior to year 2000 have been linearly interpolated in time. Aggregated to 0.5° spatial resolution
Population national	`socioeconomic/pop/<soc_scenario>/population_<soc_scenario>_national_annual_<start-year>_<end-year>.csv`
	total number of people per country	1850-1900 1901-2020	national annual	HYDE v3.2.1 (based on WPP 2017 revision, following the methodology of Klein Goldewijk et al., 2017). Decadal data prior to year 1950 have been linearly interpolated in time.
GDP mandatory
GDP	`socioeconomic/gdp/<soc_scenario>/<soc_scenario>_gdp_annual_<start-year>_<end-year>.nc`
	GDP PPP 2005 USD (gdp)	1850-1900 1901-2016	country-level annual	Historic country-level GDP data are an extension of the data provided by Geiger, 2018 (https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/10/847/2018/essd-10-847-2018.html), and are derived mainly from the Maddison Project database. Gridded GDP data will be provided by c. 07/2021.

Geographic data and information

Table 9: Geographic data and information for ISIMIP3a simulation round.
Dataset	Included variables (specifier)	Resolution	Reference/Source and Comments
Land/Sea masks
landseamask	`geo_conditions/landseamask/landseamask.nc`
	land-sea mask (mask)	0.5° grid	This is the land-sea mask of the W5E5 dataset. Over all grid cells marked as land by this mask, all climate data that are based on W5E5 (GSWP3-W5E5 as well as climate data bias-adjusted using W5E5) are guaranteed to represent climate conditions over land.
landseamask_no-ant	`geo_conditions/landseamask/landseamask_no-ant.nc`
	land-sea mask (mask)	0.5° grid	Same as landseamask but without Antarctica.
landseamask_water-global	`geo_conditions/landseamask/landseamask_water-global.nc`
	land-sea mask (mask)	0.5° grid	This is the generic land-sea mask from ISIMIP2b that is to be used for global water simulations in ISIMIP3. It marks more grid cells as land than landseamask. Over those additional land cells, the climate data that are based on W5E5 (GSWP3-W5E5 as well as climate data bias-adjusted using W5E5) are not guaranteed to represent climate conditions over land. Instead they may represent climate conditions over sea or a mix of conditions over land and sea.
Soil
gswp3_hwsd	`geo_conditions/soil/gswp3_hwsd.nc`
	soiltexture	0.5° grid	One fixed pattern to be used for all simulation periods. Upscaled Soil texture map (30 arc sec. to 0.5°x0.5° grid) based on Harmonized World Soil Database v1.1 (HWSD) using the GSWP3 upscaling method A (http://hydro.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~sujan/research/gswp3/soil-texture-map.html)
River routing
basins	`geo_conditions/river_routing/ddm30_basins_cru_neva.[nc\|asc]`
	basin number (basinnumber)	0.5° grid	DDM30 (Döll & Lehner, 2002). Documentation (pdf) is provided alongside data files.
flowdir	`geo_conditions/river_routing/ddm30_flowdir_cru_neva.[nc\|asc]`
	flow direction (flowdirection)	0.5° grid	DDM30 (Döll & Lehner, 2002). Documentation (pdf) is provided alongside data files.
slopes	`geo_conditions/river_routing/ddm30_slopes_cru_neva.[nc\|asc]`
	slope (slope)	0.5° grid	DDM30 (Döll & Lehner, 2002). Documentation (pdf) is provided alongside data files.

Output data

Output variables

Table 10: Output variables for Biomes (`variable`).
Variable	Variable specifier	Unit	Resolution	Comments
Pools
Carbon Mass in Vegetation	cveg-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Grid cell total and PFT information is essential.
Carbon Mass in aboveground vegetation biomass	cvegag-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Grid cell total and PFT information is essential.
Carbon Mass in belowground vegetation biomass	cvegbg-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Grid cell total and PFT information is essential.
Carbon Mass in Litter Pool	clitter-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Grid cell total and PFT information is essential.
Carbon Mass in Soil Pool	csoil-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Grid cell total and PFT information is essential. If possible, provide soil carbon for all depth layers (i.e. 3D-field), and indicate depth in m. Otherwise, provide soil carbon integrated over entire soil depth.
Fluxes
Carbon Mass Flux out of Atmosphere due to Gross Primary Production on Land	gpp-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Carbon Mass Flux into Atmosphere due to Autotrophic (Plant) Respiration on Land	ra-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Carbon Mass Flux out of Atmosphere due to Net Primary Production on Land	npp-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Carbon Mass Flux into Atmosphere due to Heterotrophic Respiration on Land	rh-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Carbon Mass Flux into Atmosphere due to CO₂ Emission from Fire	fireint-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Carbon Mass Flux out of Atmosphere due to Net Biospheric Production on Land	ecoatmflux-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly	This is the net mass flux of carbon between land and atmosphere calculated as photosynthesis MINUS the sum of plant and soil respiration, carbonfluxes from fire, harvest, grazing and land use change. Positive flux is into the land.
Root autotrophic respiration	rr-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Structure
Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation	fapar-<pft/total>	%	0.5° grid daily, monthly	Value between 0 and 100.
Leaf Area Index	lai-<pft/total>	1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Plant Functional Type Grid Fraction	pft-<pft/total>	%	0.5° grid annual (or constant if static)	The categories may differ from model to model, depending on their PFT definitions. This may include natural PFTs, anthropogenic PFTs, bare soil, lakes, urban areas, etc. Sum of all should equal the fraction of the grid cell that is land.
Hydrological variables
Evapotranspiration	evap-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly	Sum of transpiration, evaporation, interception and sublimation.
Evaporation from Canopy (interception)	intercep-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly	The canopy evaporation+sublimation (if present in model).
Water Evaporation from Soil	esoil	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly	Includes sublimation.
Transpiration	trans-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Runoff	qtot	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid monthly	Total (surface + subsurface) runoff (qtot = qs + qsb). Please provide both daily and monthly resolution.
Surface runoff	qs	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid monthly	Water that leaves the surface layer (top soil layer) e.g. as overland flow / fast runoff.
Soil moisture for each layer	soilmoist	kg m-2	0.5° grid daily	Please provide soil moisture for all depth layers (i.e. 3D-field), and indicate depth in m. If depth varies over time or space, see instructions for depth layers on https://www.isimip.org/protocol/preparing-simulation-files.
Frozen soil moisture for each layer	soilmoistfroz	kg m-2	0.5° grid monthly	Please provide soil moisture for all depth levels and indicate depth in m.
Snow depth	snd	m	0.5° grid monthly	Grid cell mean depth of snowpack. This variable only for the purposes of the permafrost sector.
Snow water equivalent	swe	kg m-2	0.5° grid monthly	Total water mass of the snowpack (liquid or frozen) averaged over grid cell. Please also deliver for the permafrost sector.
Annual maximum thaw depth	thawdepth	m	0.5° grid annual	Calculated from daily thaw depths.
Optional output
Carbon Mass in Leaves	cleaf-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual
Carbon Mass in Wood	cwood-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Including sapwood and hardwood.
Carbon Mass in Roots	croot-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Including fine and coarse roots.
Other variables
Temperature of Soil	tsl	K	0.5° grid daily, monthly	Temperature of each soil layer. Reported as "missing" for grid cells occupied entirely by "sea". This is the most important variable for the permafrost sector. If daily resolution not possible, please provide monthly. If depth varies over time or space, see instructions for depth layers on https://www.isimip.org/protocol/preparing-simulation-files.
Burnt Area Fraction	burntarea-<pft/total>	%	0.5° grid daily, monthly	Fire should be only allowed to burn natural vegetation, rangelands and managed pastures but not croplands. Area percentage of grid cell that has burned at any time of the given day/month/year (for daily/monthly/annual resolution)
Other
Soil types	soil		0.5° grid constant	Soil types or texture classes as used by your model. Please include a description of each type or class, especially if these are different from the standard HSWD and GSWP3 soil types. Please also include a description of the parameters and values associated with these soil types (parameter values could be submitted as spatial fields where appropriate).
Crop yields	yield-<crop>-<irrigation>	dry matter (t ha-1 per growing season)	0.5° grid seasonal	Crop-specific: Yield may be identical to above-ground biomass (biom) if the entire plant is harvested, e.g. for bioenergy production.
Nitrogen application rate	initr-<crop>-<irrigation>	kg ha-1 per growing season	0.5° grid seasonal	Total nitrogen application rate. If organic and inorganic amendments are applied, rate should be reported as effective inorganic nitrogen input (ignoring residues).
Actual planting dates	plantday-<crop>-<irrigation>	day of year	0.5° grid seasonal	Julian dates.
Anthesis dates	anthday-<crop>-<irrigation>	day of year of anthesis	0.5° grid seasonal	Together with the year of anthesis added to the list of outputs (see below) it allows for clear identification of anthesis that is also easy to follow for potential users from outside the project.
Maturity dates	matyday-<crop>-<irrigation>	day of year of maturity	0.5° grid seasonal	Together with the year of maturity added to the list of outputs (see below) it allows for clear identification of maturity that is also easy to follow for potential users from outside the project.
Above ground biomass (dry matter)	biom-<crop>-<irrigation>	t ha-1 per growing season	0.5° grid seasonal	The whole plant biomass above ground.
Soil carbon emissions	sco2-<crop>-<irrigation>	kg C ha-1	0.5° grid seasonal	Ideally should be modeled with realistic land-use history and initial carbon pools. Subject to extra study.
Nitrous oxide emissions	sn2o-<crop>-<irrigation>	kg N2O-N ha-1	0.5° grid seasonal	Ideally should be modeled with realistic land-use history and initial carbon pools. Subject to extra study.
Carbon in Products of Land Use Change	cproduct-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Products generated during Land-use change. Removed carbon should not go into the soil but into the product pool. Grid cell total and PFT information is essential.
Carbon in biomass harvested from natural vegetation	charv-<pft/total>	kg m-2	0.5° grid annual	Refers to Carbon not going into soil. Grid cell total and PFT information is essential.
Net Primary Production on Land allocated to leaf biomass	nppleaf-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Net Primary Production on Land allocated to fine root biomass	npproot-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Net Primary Production on Land allocated to above ground woody biomass	nppagwood-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly
Net Primary Production on Land allocated to below ground wood biomass	nppbgwood-<pft/total>	kg m-2 s-1	0.5° grid daily, monthly

Reporting model results

The specification on how to submit the data, as well as further information and instructions are given on the ISIMIP website at:

https://www.isimip.org/protocol/preparing-simulation-files

It is important that you comply precisely with the formatting specified there, in order to facilitate the analysis of your simulation results in the ISIMIP framework. Incorrect formatting can seriously delay the analysis. The ISIMIP Team will be glad to assist with the preparation of these files if necessary.

File names consist of a series of identifier, separated by underscores. Things to note:

Report one variable per file
In filenames, use lowercase letters only
Use underscore (_) to separate identifiers
Variable names consist of a single word without hyphens or underscores
Use hyphens (-) to separate strings within an identifier, e.g. in a model name
If no specific sens-scenario is given in the experiments table, use default.
NetCDF file extension is .nc

Please name the files in the Biomes sector according to the following pattern:

<model>_<climate-forcing>_<climate-scenario>_<soc-scenario>_<sens-scenario>_<variable>(-<crop>-<irrigation>|-<pft>)_<region>_<timestep>_<start-year>_<end-year>.nc

and replace the identifiers with the specifiers given in the tables of this document. Examples would be:

lpjml_gswp3_obsclim_histsoc_default_qtot_global_annual_1901_1910.nc
lpjml_gwsp3_counterclim_2015soc_1901co2_yield-mai-noirr_global_annual_2006_2010.nc

The following regular expression can be used to validate and parse the file name for the biomes sector:

(?P<model>[a-z0-9-+.]+)_(?P<climate_forcing>[a-z0-9-]+)_(?P<climate_scenario>[a-z0-9-]+)_(?P<soc_scenario>[a-z0-9-]+)_(?P<sens_scenario>[a-z0-9-]+)_(?P<variable>[a-z0-9]+)(-(?P<crop>[a-z0-9]+)-(?P<irrigation>(firr|cirr|noirr))|-(?P<pft>[a-z0-9-]+))?_(?P<region>(global))_(?P<timestep>[a-z0-9-]+)_(?P<start_year>\d{4})_(?P<end_year>\d{4}).nc

For questions or clarifications, please contact info@isimip.org or the data managers directly (isimip-data@pik‐potsdam.de) before submitting files.

References

Dlugokencky, E. and Tans, P.: Trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide, Natl. Ocean. Atmos. Adm. Earth Syst. Res. Lab. [online] Available from: www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/, 2019.

Geiger, T.: Continuous national gross domestic product (GDP) time series for 195 countries: Past observations (1850–2005) harmonized with future projections according to the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (2006–2100), Earth System Science Data, 10(2), 847–856, doi:10.5194/essd-10-847-2018, 2018.

Hurtt, G. C., Chini, L., Sahajpal, R., Frolking, S., Bodirsky, B. L., Calvin, K., Doelman, J. C., Fisk, J., Fujimori, S., Goldewijk, K. K., Hasegawa, T., Havlik, P., Heinimann, A., Humpenöder, F., Jungclaus, J., Kaplan, J., Kennedy, J., Kristzin, T., Lawrence, D., Lawrence, P., Ma, L., Mertz, O., Pongratz, J., Popp, A., Poulter, B., Riahi, K., Shevliakova, E., Stehfest, E., Thornton, P., Tubiello, F. N., Vuuren, D. P. van and Zhang, X.: Harmonization of Global Land-Use Change and Management for the Period 850–2100 (LUH2) for CMIP6, Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, 1–65, doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2019-360, 2020.

Klein Goldewijk, K., Beusen, A., Doelman, J. and Stehfest, E.: Anthropogenic land use estimates for the holocene – hYDE 3.2, Earth System Science Data, 9(2), 927–953, doi:10.5194/essd-9-927-2017, 2017.

Lehner, B., Liermann, C. R., Revenga, C., Vörösmarty, C., Fekete, B., Crouzet, P., Döll, P., Endejan, M., Frenken, K., Magome, J., Nilsson, C., Robertson, J. C., Rödel, R., Sindorf, N. and Wisser, D.: Global reservoir and dam database, version 1 (gRanDv1): Dams, revision 01. palisades, nY, NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), doi:10.7927/H4N877QK, 2011a.

Lehner, B., Liermann, C. R., Revenga, C., Vörösmarty, C., Fekete, B., Crouzet, P., Döll, P., Endejan, M., Frenken, K., Magome, J., Nilsson, C., Robertson, J. C., Rödel, R., Sindorf, N. and Wisser, D.: High-resolution mapping of the world’s reservoirs and dams for sustainable river-flow management, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 9(9), 494–502, doi:10.1890/100125, 2011b.

Meinshausen, M., Smith, S. J., Calvin, K., Daniel, J. S., Kainuma, M. L. T., Lamarque, J.-F., Matsumoto, K., Montzka, S. A., Raper, S. C. B., Riahi, K., Thomson, A., Velders, G. J. M. and Vuuren, D. P. P. van: The rCP greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions from 1765 to 2300, Climatic Change, 109(1), 213, doi:10.1007/s10584-011-0156-z, 2011.

Meinshausen, M., Nicholls, Z., Lewis, J., Gidden, M. J., Vogel, E., Freund, M., Beyerle, U., Gessner, C., Nauels, A., Bauer, N., Canadell, J. G., Daniel, J. S., John, A., Krummel, P., Luderer, G., Meinshausen, N., Montzka, S. A., Rayner, P., Reimann, S., Smith, S. J., Berg, M. van den, Velders, G. J. M., Vollmer, M. and Wang, H. J.: The sSP greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions to 2500, Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, 2019, 1–77, doi:10.5194/gmd-2019-222, 2019.

Messager, M. L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I. and Schmitt, O.: Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach, Nature Communications, 7(1), 13603, doi:10.1038/ncomms13603, 2016.

Murakami, D. and Yamagata, Y.: Estimation of Gridded Population and GDP Scenarios with Spatially Explicit Statistical Downscaling, Sustainability, 11(7), 2106, doi:10.3390/su11072106, 2019.

Portmann, F. T., Siebert, S. and Döll, P.: MIRCA2000—Global monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas around the year 2000: A new high-resolution data set for agricultural and hydrological modeling, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 24(1), doi:10.1029/2008GB003435, 2010.

Reyer, C., Silveyra Gonzalez, R., Dolos, K., Hartig, F., Hauf, Y., Noack, M., Lasch-Born, P., Rötzer, T., Pretzsch, H., Meesenburg, H., Fleck, S., Wagner, M., Bolte, A., Sanders, T., Kolari, P., Mäkelä, A., Vesala, T., Mammarella, I., Pumpanen, J., Matteucci, G., Collalti, A., D’Andrea, E., Foltýnová, L., Krejza, J., Ibrom, A., Pilegaard, K., Loustau, D., Bonnefond, J.-M., Berbigier, P., Picart, D., Lafont, S., Dietze, M., Cameron, D., Vieno, M., Tian, H., Palacios-Orueta, A., Cicuendez, V., Recuero, L., Wiese, K., Büchner, M., Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Kim, H., Weedon, G., Sheffield, J., Vega del Valle, I., Suckow, F., Horemans, J., Martel, S., Bohn, F., Steinkamp, J., Chikalanov, A. and Frieler, K.: The pROFOUND database for evaluating vegetation models and simulating climate impacts on forests. v. 0.1.12., GFZ Data Services, doi:10.5880/PIK.2019.008, 2019a.

Reyer, C. P. O., Silveyra Gonzalez, R., Dolos, K., Hartig, F., Hauf, Y., Noack, M., Lasch-Born, P., Rötzer, T., Pretzsch, H., Mesenburg, H., Fleck, S., Wagner, M., Bolte, A., Sanders, T. G. M., Kolari, P., Mäkelä, A., Vesala, T., Mammarella, I., Pumpanen, J., Collalti, A., Trotta, C., Matteucci, G., D’Andrea, E., Foltýnová, L., Krejza, J., Ibrom, A., Pilegaard, K., Loustau, D., Bonnefond, J.-M., Berbigier, P., Picart, D., Lafont, S., Dietze, M., Cameron, D., Vieno, M., Tian, H., Palacios-Orueta, A., Cicuendez, V., Recuero, L., Wiese, K., Büchner, M., Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Kim, H., Weedon, G. P., Sheffield, J., Vega del Valle, I., Suckow, F., Horemans, J. A., Martel, S., Bohn, F., Steinkamp, J., Chikalanov, A., Mahnken, M., Gutsch, M. and Frieler, K.: The pROFOUND database for evaluating vegetation models and simulating climate impacts on forests, Earth System Science Data Discussions, 2019, 1–47, doi:10.5194/essd-2019-220, 2019b.

Tian, H., Yang, J., Lu, C., Xu, R., Canadell, J. G., Jackson, R. B., Arneth, A., Chang, J., Chen, G., Ciais, P., Gerber, S., Ito, A., Huang, Y., Joos, F., Lienert, S., Messina, P., Olin, S., Pan, S., Peng, C., Saikawa, E., Thompson, R. L., Vuichard, N., Winiwarter, W., Zaehle, S., Zhang, B., Zhang, K. and Zhu, Q.: The global n2O model intercomparison project, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 99(6), 1231–1251, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0212.1, 2018.

ISIMIP3a simulation round simulation protocol - Biomes

Introduction

General concept

ISIMIP3a

Historical model evaluation and attribution runs

Simulation protocol

Model versioning

Scenarios & Experiments

Scenario definitions

General note regarding sensitivity experiments

Experiments

model evaluation

model evaluation

model evaluation

counterfactual climate

counterfactual climate

counterfactual climate

CO₂ sensitivity

CO₂ sensitivity

Note regarding models requiring spin-up

Input data

Climate forcing

Greenhouse gas forcing

Socioeconomic forcing

Geographic data and information

Output data

Output variables

Reporting model results

References