Many interactions between various abiotic and biotic processes and their parameters were identified by global sensitivity analysis, revealing strong dependence of a certain model output (e.g. CO₂ or heat fluxes, leaf area index, radiation, water table, soil temperature or snow depth) to model set-up and parameterization in many different processes, a limited transferability of parameter values between models, and the importance of ancillary measurements for improving models and thus predictions.

We simulate CO₂ and N₂O dynamics over a full forest rotation on drained agricultural peatland, using CoupModel. Data used for validation include tree ring-derived biomass data (1966–2011) and measured abiotic and soil emission data (2006–2011). The results show that the C fixed in forest biomass is slightly larger than the soil losses over the full rotation period. However when including N₂O and indirect emissions from forest thinning products, the forest system switches to a large GHG source.

To identify site specific differences in CO2-related processes in open peatlands, we calibrated a process oriented model to fit to detailed measurements of carbon fluxes and compared the resulting parameter ranges between the sites. For most processes a common configuration could be applied. Site specific differences were identified for soil respiration coefficients, plant radiation-use efficiencies and plant storage fractions for spring regrowth.