Abstract ........................................................ 2
Brief contents .................................................. 4
1 Introduction ................................................. 1
1.1 Species-rich temperate grasslands ....................... 7
1.2 Modelling the structure and dynamics of grasslands ..... 14
1.3 Analysing the structure and dynamics of species-rich
forests ................................................ 15
1.4 Research objectives .................................... 17
1.5 The chapters at a glance ............................... 18
2 A Review of Grassland Models in the Biofuel Context ......... 21
2.1 Introduction ........................................... 22
2.2 Review and evaluation methods .......................... 23
2.3 Brief review of grassland modelling concepts ........... 25
2.4 Discussion ............................................. 39
3 Grassmind - Model Description ............................... 42
3.1 Overview ............................................... 42
3.2 The geometry of an individual .......................... 44
3.3 Model processes ........................................ 47
3.4 Model inputs and outputs ............................... 60
3.5 Coupling Grassmind with a soil model ................... 63
4 Simulating the Structure and Dynamics of Temperate
Grasslands in the Context of Diversity-Productivity
Relationships ............................................... 66
4.1 Introduction ........................................... 66
4.2 Material and methods ................................... 68
4.3 Results ................................................ 73
4.4 Discussion ............................................. 76
5 On the Challenge of Fitting Tree Size Distributions in
Ecology ..................................................... 79
5.1 Introduction ........................................... 8O
5.2 Materials and methods .................................. 82
5.3 Results ................................................ 87
5.4 Discussion ............................................. 93
6 Discussion and Future Perspectives .......................... 96
6.1 The approach developed in this thesis .................. 96
6.2 Main results .......................................... 100
6.3 Outlook ............................................... 101
Appendices .................................................... 104
Figures ....................................................... 127
Tables ........................................................ 130
Bibliography .................................................. 131
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