Implementation and calibration of the Vaganov-Shashkin model in the virtualRings R package
Process-based tree growth models provide a mechanistic framework for investigating how climate conditions regulate tree growth across daily to annual time scales. Yet, their broader application across species and environments is constrained by the limited accessibility in open-source environments and the difficulty of estimating physiological parameters that are rarely measured directly. Here, we…
Process-based tree growth models help researchers understand how climate influences tree growth over various time frames. However, implementing these models across different species and environments is limited by accessibility in open-source environments and the challenge of estimating certain physiological parameters. The virtualRings R package addresses these issues by integrating the Vaganov-Shashkin model (VSM) and the RINGS3 models.
Our focus was on the implementation and calibration of VSM using tree-ring width data from seven Northern Hemisphere sites with varying environmental conditions. We compared traditional bootstrap-based calibration with a more efficient Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) approach, finding that CMA-ES provided better agreement between simulated and observed radial tree growth.
We also experimented with practical CMA-ES settings to optimize computational cost and performance. While CMA-ES demonstrated potential limitations, the virtualRings package offers an open and reproducible platform for tree growth simulation, enabling the application of process-based models across diverse species and environments.
This advancement allows for a deeper investigation into how temperature and moisture constraints regulate daily tree-ring formation across both spatial and temporal scales.
Written by urgent.news from bioRxiv's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
