CenW is a generic growth and ecosystem gas exchange model that simulates photosynthetic carbon gain, water use and nitrogen cycling through plants and soil organic matter. The photosynthetic modelling uses a simple, yet physiologically based, description of photosynthesis together with simple assumptions about light interception. With appropriate parameter settings, it can be used for forest or pasture systems.
The calculation of water use is linked to light interception and calculated carbon gain which are linked to water loss calculated with a mechanistic water loss routine and an assumed water use efficiency term that explicitly links carbon and water dynamics. Nitrogen turn-over is calculated with a modified version of the CENTURY model, which links organic carbon and nitrogen in soil organic matter pools and the dynamics of carbon and nitrogen in the soil with that in plants. The latest version has added optional NH3 and N2O calculation routines that had been based on those used in the DNDC model.
The model is suitable for simulating pasture and forest growth under different climatic and soil conditions, and in response to management and climatic changes. It is suitable for simulations of wood-volume growth in forests or milk production in dairy systems and can follow short-term and long-term carbon balances in plant biomass and soil organic matter. Appropriate times scales range from daily to compare fluxes against observations from eddy-covariance measurements to millennial to follow long-term changes in soil carbon.
The compiled CenW executable is available here. You can also download the full source code (written in Delphi). This current version is easy to implement and runs under standard Delphi..
More information about the model, and the full set of equations behind the software, is contained in the Equations documentation below. Use of CenW is conditional on adherence to the Licence agreement below.
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