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Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2013

Abstract

Soils are a crucial component of the Earth system; they comprise a large portion of terrestrial carbon stocks, mediate the supply and demand of nutrients, and influence the overall response of terrestrial ecosystems to perturbations. In this paper, we develop a new soil biogeochemistry model for the Community Land Model, version 4 (CLM4). The new model includes a vertical dimension to carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and transformations, a more realistic treatment of mineral N pools, flexible treatment of the dynamics of decomposing carbon, and a radiocarbon (14 C) tracer. We describe the model structure, compare it with site-level and global observations, and discuss the overall effect of the revised soil model on Community Land Model (CLM) carbon dynamics. Site-level comparisons to radiocarbon and bulk soil C observations support the idea that soil C turnover is reduced at depth beyond what is expected from environmental controls for temperature, moisture, and oxygen that are considered in the model. In better agreement with observations, the revised soil model predicts substantially more and older soil C, particularly at high latitudes, where it resolves a permafrost soil C pool. In addition, the 20th century-C dynamics of the model are more realistic than those of the baseline model, with more terrestrial C uptake over the 20th century due to reduced N downregulation and longer turnover times for decomposing C.

Details

Title
The effect of vertically resolved soil biogeochemistry and alternate soil C and N models on C dynamics of CLM4
Author
Koven, C. D.; Riley, W. J.; Subin, Z. M.; Tang, J. Y.; Torn, M. S.; Collins, W. D.; Bonan, G. B.; Lawrence, D. M.; Swenson, S. C.
First page
7109
Publication year
2013
Publication date
2013
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
ISSN
17264170
e-ISSN
17264189
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1465326668
Copyright
Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2013