IBIS: Global Terrestrial Biosphere Model Simulations

IBIS Version 2.5 is a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model that explicitly links land surface physics, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and transient vegetation dynamics within a single framework. Developed by the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, it simulates global patterns of water balance, carbon balance, and vegetation structure. Model performance was evaluated using continental- and global-scale field data for the period 1965-1994.

Use Cases

• Projecting transient changes in global vegetation composition and structure in response to climate change, based on the model's dynamic vegetation component.
• Simulating global surface water runoff and the terrestrial carbon balance, based on the linked hydrological and biogeochemical processes.
• Benchmarking other Earth system models against simulated patterns of net primary production, biomass, and soil carbon.
• Studying the potential response of biospheric processes to human activity, based on the model's physically consistent framework.

Strengths

• Model represents a wide range of integrated terrestrial biosphere processes, including physics, physiology, phenology, and competition.
• Evaluation was conducted using a wide range of continental- and global-scale field measurements.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals established importance and curation.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing or conflicting: the dataset size, row count, and specific column structure are unknown.
• There is a significant conflict in the 'last updated' date (1994 vs. 2026), casting doubt on data currency and maintenance.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details, creating potential reuse uncertainty.

Provenance

Source

Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) researchers, developed for NASA.

Collection Method

Output from the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) model, a synthetic numerical simulation.

Time Range

1965-1994 (for the contemporary biosphere evaluation period referenced in descriptions).

Freshness

2026-04-10 01:49:19.782997 (Data.gov), but conflicts with a 1994 date on NASA Earthdata.

Geography

Global