22 February, 2020 (Eller, NPH, JULES-SOX) Eller, C.B., Rowland, L., Mencuccini, M., Rosas, T., Williams, K., Harper, A., Medlyn, B.E., Wagner, Y., Klein, T., Teodoro, G.S., Oliveira, R.S., Matos, I.S., Rosado, B.H.P., Fuchs, K., Wohlfahrt, G., Montagnani, L., Meir, P., Sitch, S. and Cox, P.M. (2020), Stomatal optimization based on xylem hydraulics (SOX) improves land surface model simulation of vegetation responses to climate. New Phytol. doi:10.1111/nph.16419 Summary Many researchers, including me, who use ecosystem models have recognized that the beta function approach for representing the change in plant photosynthesis to soil moisture stress needs improvement.

15 February, 2020 (Ogle, CHANCE, SAM) Kiona Ogle & Jarrett J. Barber (2016) Plant and Ecosystem Memory, CHANCE, 29:2, 16-22, DOI: 10.1080/09332480.2016.1181961 Why did I read this paper? It is often easier to get knowledge (i.e., model, concept, equation, and so forth) not from the original descriptive paper, but from other papers using the knowledge because they introduce the knowledge after masticating it, not as it is. This paper masticates the stochastic antecedent modelling (SAM) framework for beginners.

7 February, 2020 (Reichstein, Nature, Deep learning) Reichstein, M., Camps-Valls, G., Stevens, B. et al. Deep learning and process understanding for data-driven Earth system science. Nature 566, 195–204 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0912-1 Question: How have machine learning algorithms, especially deep learning, been applied to Earth system science and what is the future direction of the application? Context: Our ability to produce a deluge of data outpaces our ability to assimilate the information.

4 February, 2020 (Jung, Nature, Compensatory) Jung, M., Reichstein, M., Schwalm, C. et al. Compensatory water effects link yearly global land CO2 sink changes to temperature. Nature 541, 516-520 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20780 Question: How do changes in temperature and water availability effect on gross primary productivity (GPP), terrestrial ecosystem respiration (TER), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) at local and global scales? Context: Despite temperature is known to contribute to the inter annual variation (IAV) of the terrestrial carbon cycle, several studies propose that water availability play an important role in the carbon cycle relates such as the carbon balance of semi-tropics and the sensitivity to IAV.

Why do a PhD? I like to do the PhD-related activities. Studying Working in nature Analyzing and computing Writing Presenting Educating I want to learn the ecosystem modeling at a deep level. I like the liberal atmosphere of academic community. Open discussion Less strict working time I like jobs with a PhD than ones with a bachelor’s or Master’s degree. Why do a PhD abroad? There are potential advisors whose

21 January, 2020 (Brugnera, GCB, Liana) di Porcia e Brugnera, M, Meunier, F, Longo, M, et al. Modeling the impact of liana infestation on the demography and carbon cycle of tropical forests. Global Change Biology, 2019; 25: 3767– 3780. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14769 Question: How much does integrating lianas into the ED2 influence the estimates of forest carbon cycle? The authors hypothesized that the impact of lianas on carbon uptake by forest would be larger in the secondary forests than in the old-growth forests since lianas showed high density in young forests.

11 January, 2020 (Piao, GCB, Phenology) Piao S, Liu Q, Chen A, et al. Plant phenology and global climate change: Current progresses and challenges. Global Change Biology, 2019;00:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14619 Piao et al. (2019) reviewed the current understanding of leaf phenological processes. They suggested that four key factors are driving the phenological processes: 1) temperature, 2) photoperiod, 3) nutrient and water availability, and 4) interseasonal phenological correlations (i.e. the positive spring and autumn phenological intercorrelation).

18 December, 2019 (Fisher, NPH, JULES-ED) Fisher, R., McDowell, N., Purves, D., Moorcroft, P., Sitch, S., Cox, P., Huntingford, C., Meir, P. and Ian Woodward, F. (2010), Assessing uncertainties in a second‐generation dynamic vegetation model caused by ecological scale limitations. New Phytologist, 187: 666-681. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03340.x Question: How demographic processes of two-dimensional spatial scales influence simulations of community structure, and responses of ecosystems to climate change? Context:

under conceiving Useful Links Asking good questions: A well-structured and -explained essay Developing-research-questions: Contains real examples How can I choose a good topic for my research paper?: Contains a video How to write a research question: Contains visual contents and is easy to read Developing strong research questions: Contains summary tables

17 December, 2019 (Smith-Martin, NPH, Liana) Smith‐Martin, C.M., Xu, X., Medvigy, D., Schnitzer, S.A. and Powers, J.S. (2019), Allometric scaling laws linking biomass and rooting depth vary across ontogeny and functional groups in tropical dry forest lianas and trees. New Phytologist. doi:10.1111/nph.16275 Question: Do mature lianas invest less biomass in stems compared to trees? The authors tried to compare the investment strategy between lianas and trees. Do juveniles follow the same allocation patterns as mature individuals?

Which information do I have to mine from a paper for developing a research question? Every day, I receive email alerts from journals or paper-searching websites. I skim through the title list in the alerts and select ones including keywords that I am interested in. In turn, I read the abstract to grasp what the paper is about and add it to my read-later folder if I feel it is interesting.

7 December, 2019 (Bar, NPH, Fire) Bär, A., Michaletz, S.T. and Mayr, S. (2019), Fire effects on tree physiology. New Phytologist, 223: 1728-1741. doi:10.1111/nph.15871 My research group at NIFOS was invited to write a research paper for a special issue of a journal. We decided to write a paper about the lagged browning after the forest fire at April 2019. I wrote about how forest fire affects an individual tree’s physiology, referring majorly to this paper.

12 August, 2019 (Resco de Dios, AFM, FMC) Resco de Dios, V., Fellows, A.W., Nolan, R.H., Boer, M.M., Bradstock, R.A., Domingo, F. and Goulden, M.L. (2015). A semi-mechanistic model for predicting the moisture content of fine litter. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 203, 64-73. I read this paper to get some hints for my fuel moisture research at NIFOS. This paper developed a semi-mechanistic model in which fuel moisture content (FMC) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) were exponentially related.