Five sets of biophysical and hydrological measurements from across the globe are used to test the performance of the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) <Foley et al., 1996> in reproducing short-term and long-term evolution of soil moisture and temperature, surface energy fluxes and CO2 fluxes. The sites include a soybean crop in southwestern France (HAPEX-MOBILHY, 1986), a meadow in the Netherlands (Cabauw, 1987), a grassland in Russia (Valday-Usadievskiy, 1966--1983), a prairie in Kansas (FIFE, site 16, 1987--1989), and a tropical forest in Brazil (ABRACOS, Reserva Jaru, 1992--1993). IBIS adequately reproduces the evolution of the soil moisture together with the surface fluxes for those five different sites while only imposing a small number of site specific parameters describing vegetation characteristics and soil texture. The quality of the simulations is improved when detailed information regarding soil texture, rooting profiles, and leaf area index are available. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union