Summary:

Mortality Fluxes Leaving Vegetation Pools

This section outlines the parameterization of whole-plant mortality in the model, which is a critical but oversimplified process that requires further research. The key points are:

1. Whole-plant mortality is assumed to occur at a rate of 2% per year for all vegetation types, which is a gross simplification.

2. Mortality rates reported in literature range from 0.7% to 3.0% per year for forests.

3. The mortality rate per second (m) is calculated from the annual rate (am).

4. Mortality fluxes are calculated for various carbon (CF) and nitrogen (NF) pools, including leaves, fine roots, live and dead stems, and live and dead coarse roots.

5. Mortality fluxes are also calculated for carbon and nitrogen storage (stor) and transfer (xfer) pools.

6. The equations provided detail the calculations for these mortality fluxes, which are all proportional to the respective carbon or nitrogen storage and the mortality rate (m).

The summary highlights the oversimplified nature of the whole-plant mortality parameterization and the need for further research to better constrain this important process across different climate zones, species mixtures, and size and age classes.