Publications

(To download an ecosystem model, please scroll to the bottom)

Peer reviewed journal articles

Kahan, A. Y., W. S. Currie and D. G. Brown.  Nitrogen and carbon biogeochemistry in soil and vegetation along a urban-rural gradient in southeastern Michigan.  Landscape Ecology, In review.

Currie, W. S., M. E. Harmon, I. C. Burke, S. C. Hart, W. J. Parton, and W. Silver.  Cross-biome transplants of plant litter reveal both extension and limitation of the climate-litter quality paradigm to predict rates of decomposition.  Global Change Biology, In review.

Shaked, Shanna and W. S. Currie.  Temperature and evapotranspiration drive seasonal patterns of entropy production in a temperate forest ecosystem.  Ecological Complexity, In review.

Harmon, M. E., W. L. Silver, B. Fasth, H. Chen, I. C. Burke, W. J. Parton, S. C. Hart, and W. S. Currie. 2009. Long-term patterns of mass loss during the decomposition of leaf and fine root litter: an intersite comparison. Global Change Biology 15:1320-1338. Download pdf.

Robinson. D.T., Brown, D.G., and W.S. Currie.  2009.  Modelling carbon storage in highly fragmented and human-dominated landscapes: linking land-cover patterns and ecosystem models. Ecological Modelling 220:1325-1338. Download pdf.

Simmons, J. A., W. S. Currie, K. N. Eshleman, K. Kuers, S. Monteleone, T. L. Negley, B. R. Pohlad, and C. L. Thomas. 2008. Forest to reclaimed mine land use change leads to altered ecosystem structure and function. Ecological Applications 18:104-118. Download pdf.

Parton, William, Whendee L. Silver, Ingrid Burke, Leo Grassens, Mark E. Harmon, William S. Currie, Jennifer King, E. Carol Adair, Leslie Brandt, Steve Hart, and Becky Fasth.  2007.  Global-Scale Similarities In Nitrogen Release Patterns During Long-Term Decomposition.  Science 315: 361-364. Download pdf.

Seidl, R., W. Rammer, D. Jäger, W. S. Currie and M. J. Lexer.  2007.  Assessing trade-offs between carbon sequestration and timber production within a framework of multi-purpose forestry in Austria.  Forest Ecology and Management 248:64-69. Download pdf.     

Castro, Mark S., Keith N. Eshleman, Louis F. Pitelka, Geoff Frech, Molly Ramsey, William S. Currie, Karen Kuers, Jeffrey A. Simmons, Bob R. Pohlad, Carolyn L. Thomas, and David M. Johnson.  2007.  Symptoms of nitrogen saturation in an aggrading forested watershed in western Maryland.  Biogeochemistry 84:333-348. Download pdf.

Chastain, Robert A. Jr., W. S. Currie, and P. A. Townsend.  2006.  Carbon Sequestration and Nutrient Cycling Implications of the Evergreen Understory Layer in Appalachian Forests.  Forest Ecology and Management 231: 63-77. Download pdf.

Johnston, C. A., D. D. Breshears, Z. G. Cardon, W. S. Currie, W. R. Emanuel, J. B. Gaudinski, P. Groffman, R. B. Jackson, K. Lajtha, D. W. Nelson, W. M. Post, G. J. Retallack, R. Stallard, and L. Wielpolski.  2004.  The frontier below:  Carbon cycling in soil.  Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10:522-528. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S., K. J. Nadelhoffer, and J. D. Aber.  2004.  Redistributions of 15N highlight turnover and replenishment of mineral soil organic N as a long-term control on forest C balance.  Forest Ecology and Management, 196:109-127. Download pdf.

Nadelhoffer, K. J., B. P. Colman, W. S. Currie, A. Magill, and J. D. Aber.  2004.  Decadal-scale fates of 15N tracers added to oak and pine stands under ambient and elevated N inputs at the Harvard Forest (USA). Forest Ecology and Management, 196:89-107. Download pdf.

Magill, A. H., J. D. Aber, W. S. Currie, K. J. Nadelhoffer, M. Martin, W. H. McDowell, J. M. Melillo, and P. Steudler.  2004.  Ecosystem response to 15 years of chronic nitrogen additions at the Harvard Forest LTER, Massachusetts, USA.  Forest Ecology and Management 196:7-28. Download pdf. 

Luo, Y., B. Su, W. S. Currie, J. S. Dukes, A. Finzi, U. Hartwig, B. Hungate, R. McMurtrie, R. Oren, W. J. Parton, D. Pataki, R. Shaw, D. R. Zak, and C. Field.  2004.  Progressive nitrogen limitation of ecosystem responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.  BioScience 54:731-739. Download pdf.

Yanai, R. D., W. S. Currie, and C. L. Goodale.  2003.  Soil carbon dynamics following forest harvest: an ecosystem paradigm reconsidered.  Ecosystems 6:197-212. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S.  2003.  Relationships between carbon turnover and bioavailable energy fluxes in two temperate forest soils.  Global Change Biology 9(6):919-930. Download pdf.

Townsend, P.A., J. R. Foster, R. A. Chastain, Jr., and W. S. Currie.  2003.  Application of imaging spectroscopy to mapping canopy nitrogen in forests of the Central Appalachian Mountains using Hyperion and AVIRIS.  IEEE Transactions on Geosciences and Remote Sensing 41(6):1347-1354. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S. and K. J. Nadelhoffer.  2002. The imprint of land use history:  Patterns of carbon and nitrogen in downed woody debris at the Harvard Forest.  Ecosystems, 5(5):446-460. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S., K. J. Nadelhoffer and B. Colman.  2002.  Long-term movement of 15N tracers into fine woody debris under chronically elevated N inputs.  Plant and Soil 238:313-323. Download pdf.

Wullschleger, S. D., R. B. Jackson, W. S. Currie, A. D. Friend, Y. Luo, F. Mouillot, Y. Pan, and G. Shao.  2001.  Below-ground processes in gap models for simulating forest responses to global change.  Climatic Change 51:449-473. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S. and K. Nadelhoffer.  1999.  Dynamic redistribution of isotopically labelled cohorts of nitrogen inputs in two temperate forests.  Ecosystems 2:4-18. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S.  1999.  The responsive C and N biogeochemistry of the temperate forest floor.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14:316-320. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S., K. Nadelhoffer, and J. D. Aber.  1999.  Soil detrital processes controlling the movement of 15N tracers to forest vegetation.  Ecological Applications 9:87-102. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S., J. D. Aber, and C. T. Driscoll.  1999.  Leaching of nutrient cations from the forest floor:  Effects of nitrogen saturation in two long-term manipulations. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 29:609-620. Download pdf.

Moorhead, D., W. S. Currie, E. Rastetter, W. Parton, and M. Harmon.  1999.  Climate and litter quality controls on decomposition:  An analysis of modeling approaches.  Global Biogeochemical Cycles 13:575-589.Download pdf. 

Aber, J. D., W. H. McDowell, K. J. Nadelhoffer, A. Magill, G. Bernston, M. Kamakea, S. G. McNulty, W. S. Currie, L. Rustad, and I. Fernandez.  1998.  Nitrogen saturation in temperate forest ecosystems:  Hypotheses revisited.  BioScience 48:921-934. Download pdf.

McDowell, W. H., W. S. Currie, J. D. Aber, and Y. Yano.  1998.  Effects of chronic nitrogen amendment on production of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen in forest soils.  Water, Air and Soil Pollution 105:175-182. Download pdf. 

Currie, W. S. and J. D. Aber.  1997.  Modeling leaching as a decomposition process in humid montane forests.  Ecology 78:1844-1860. Download pdf.    

Currie, W. S., J. D. Aber, W. H. McDowell, R. D. Boone, and A. H. Magill.  1996.  Vertical transport of dissolved organic C and N under long-term N amendments in pine and hardwood forests.  Biogeochemistry 35:471-505. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S., J. N. Galloway, and H. H. Shugart.  1996.  Watershed base-cation cycle dynamics modeled over forest regrowth in a Central Appalachian ecosystem.  Water, Air and Soil Pollution 89:1-22. Download pdf.

Merriam, J., W. H. McDowell, and W. S. Currie.  1996.  A high-temperature catalytic oxidation technique for determining total dissolved nitrogen.  Soil Science Society of America Journal 60:1050-1055. Download pdf.

Hadjimichael, E., W. S. Currie, and S. Fallieros.  1997.  The Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rule and the rigid rotator.  American Journal of Physics 65:335-341. Download pdf.

Reports, proceedings, and book chapters

W. S. Currie and K. Bergen.  2008.  Ecosystems: Forest: Temperate.  In S. Jorgensen (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Ecology.  Elsevier. Download pdf.

Currie, W. S.  2007.  Modeling the dynamics of stable-isotope ratios for ecosystem biogeochemistry.  Pp 450-479 In Lajtha, K. and Michener, R., Eds, Stable Isotope Ratios in Ecology and Environmental Science, 2nd Edition.  Blackwell. Download pdf.

Gundersen, P., B. Berg, W. S. Currie, N. B. Dise, B. A. Emmett, V. Gauci, M. Holmberg, O. J. Kjønaas, J. Mol-Dijkstra, C. van der Salm, I. K. Schmidt, A. Tietema, W. W. Wessel, L. S. Vestgarden, C. Akselsson, W. De Vries, M. Forsius, H. Kros, E. Matzner, F. Moldan, K. J. Nadelhoffer, L.-O. Nilsson, G. J. Reinds, U. Rosengren, A. O. Stuanes and R. F. Wright. 2006. Carbon-Nitrogen Interactions in Forest Ecosystems – Final Report. Forest & Landscape Working Papers no. 17-2006, Danish Center for Forest, Landscape and Planning, Hørsholm, Denmark. 62 p. Download pdf.

Simmons, J. A. and W. S. Currie.  2006.  Alteration of soil phosphorus pools from coal mining and reclamation.  Annual Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science, 77(2):31-41 (2005). Download pdf.    

Currie, W. S., R. D. Yanai, K. B. Piatek, C. E. Prescott and C. L. Goodale.  2003.  Processes affecting carbon storage in the forest floor and in downed woody debris.  Chapter 9 In Kimble, J. M. et al., Eds., The Potential for U.S. Forest Soils to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect.  Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL. Download pdf.

Aber, J. D., A. Magill, K. Nadelhoffer, J. Melillo, P. Steudler, P. Micks, J. Hendricks, R. Bowden, W. S. Currie, J. H. McDowell, and G. Berntson. 2004. Exploring the process of nitrogen saturation. Pages 259-279 in D. Foster and J. D. Aber, editors. Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 259-279.

Aber, J., W. Currie, M. Castro, M. Martin, and S. Ollinger.  2004.  Synthesis and Extrapolation: Models, Remote Sensing and Regional Analysis. Chapter 17 In: Foster, D., and J. Aber (eds.) Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England.  New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 338-362. 

Ramsey, M., W. S. Currie, and M. V. Kulkarni.  2001.  Contrasting pattern and process in natural and rehabilitated ecosystems:  The role of microtopography.  Recent Research Developments in Ecology 1:129-144.  Trivandrum, India: Transworld Research Network.

Providoli, I., H. Bugmann, W. S. Currie and P. Schleppi.  2005.  A model-based evaluation of nitrogen cycling in a Norway spruce mountain forest.  Chapter 5, p. 83-106 in Providoli, I., Pathways of atmospherically deposited nitrogen in two ecosystems in central Switzerland: An experimental and model-based study using the 15N isotope.  Unpublished PhD Dissertation ETH No. 15887, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.    

McDowell, W. H., W. S. Currie, J. D. Aber, and Y. Yano.  1998.  Effects of chronic nitrogen amendment on production of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen in forest soils.  In Wieder, R. K., M. Novak, and J. Cerny (eds.)  Biogeochemical Investigations at the Watershed, Landscape, and Regional Scales.  (Reprinted from Water, Air and Soil Pollution 105.)

Currie, W. S. 1996.  Book review of Fundamentals of Soil Ecology, by D. C. Coleman and D. A. Crossley.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11(9):390-391Download pdf.

Download the TRACE ecosystem model

Overview and software needed

The Trace model software can be downloaded here (below) including the source code in Visual Basic and sample input files needed to run the model.  You will need Visual Basic 6.0 software on your computer (available from Microsoft). This is an old version of VB but still used by many loyal VB programmers and still supported by Microsoft (for a while longer, anyway). After VB 6.0, Microsoft migrated to the VB.Net framework which is very different and will not run programs written in VB 6.0, unfortunately.

Fair use guidelines and citing Trace

Because Trace has been supported by public funds in its development and applications, the model, including its algorithms and source code, are available to researchers and to the public.  Trace remains the intellectual property of W. S. Currie and others who have participated in its development.  Many elements of the model code have derived from previous work or collaborative work by other scientists (including K. Nadelhoffer, J. Aber, A. Federer, C. Driscoll, S. Ollinger, and others), and remain the intellectual property of those individuals.

With proper citation and acknowledgment, the Trace model may be used as a tool for scientific research or in other natural-resource applications.  You should cite the publications in the open scientific literature that describe Trace (Currie et al. 1999 Ecol. Appl. 9:87-102, Currie and Nadelhoffer 1999 Ecosystems 2:4-18, etc.).  In your Acknowledgments section you should also acknowledge that you received a copy of the model. 

If equations, algorithms, or any other short pieces of model code from Trace are used, the source should be cited as the publications describing Trace in the open scientific literature.  If the particular code elements derive from other models, especially PnET-CN, the appropriate literature describing the PnET-CN model should be cited. 

If you would like to adapt or incorporate longer sections of code from Trace into a separate model, you must likewise cite the open literature describing Trace.  In addition, you should contact W. S. Currie about possible participation in the adaptation process and to inquire whether intellectual ownership may belong to other collaborators. 

You may not use trace or any part of the model algorithms or code for profit.

Directions for download of code, files, and user guide

We recommend you download trace-450-CodeAndFiles.zip to your c drive root directory (c:\) and unzip using WinZip.  It will expand to produce c:\trace and a directory structure that includes the model and all of the associated input files in the default locations.  (You can install the model on a different drive or in a different directory, but some of the code is hard-wired to look here so this will be easiest.) The source code will be in the directory c:\trace\currentVBver\trace450code.  The source code appears as a collection of about two dozen project, form, and module files.  If you have Visual Basic installed on your machine, find trace450.vbp and double-click on it to open the source code.        

Other files that are included in the bundled zip file, including a parameter database (TraceDataNeedsx.xls), files to assist in the creation of new input files for new sites (NewSite.xls), and so on, are explained in the Trace User Guide. 

You should also download the Trace User Guide here, which provides a wealth of information on the basic principles of the model, directions for its use, explanations of input and output files, and details on model processes.  The guide also outlines some data management issues and methodological issues in using and applying Trace.

Finally, journal articles that are useful in understanding the initial development of Trace are referenced in the user guide, and are also downloadable as .pdf files above under Publications.