Nutrient Dynamics in a Coupled Terrestrial Biosphere and Land Model (ELM-FATES-CNP)

Ryan G. Knox; Charles D. Koven; William J. Riley; Anthony P. Walker; S. Joseph Wright; Jennifer A. Holm; Xinyuan Wei; Rosie A. Fisher; Qing Zhu; Jinyun Tang; Daniel M. Ricciuto; Jacquelyn K. Shuman; Xiaojuan Yang; Lara M. Kueppers; Jeffrey Q. Chambers

doi:10.1029/2023MS003689

Nutrient Dynamics in a Coupled Terrestrial Biosphere and Land Model (ELM-FATES-CNP)

Ryan G. Knox, Charles D. Koven, William J. Riley, Anthony P. Walker, S. Joseph Wright, Jennifer A. Holm, Xinyuan Wei, Rosie A. Fisher, Qing Zhu, Jinyun Tang, Daniel M. Ricciuto, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Xiaojuan Yang, Lara M. Kueppers, Jeffrey Q. Chambers

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2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a representation of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator, a demographic vegetation model within the Energy Exascale Earth System land model. This representation is modular, and designed to allow testing of multiple hypothetical approaches for carbon-nutrient coupling in plants. Novel model hypotheses introduced in this work include, (a) the controls on plant acquisition of aqueous mineralized nutrients in the soil and (b) fairly straight forward methods of allocating nutrients to specific plant organs and their losses through live plant turnover as well as litter fluxes generated through plant mortality. This combines the new with pre-existing hypotheses (such as nitrogen fixation and soil decomposition) into a system that can accommodate plant-soil dynamics for a large number of size- and functional-type-resolved plant cohorts within a time-since-disturbance-resolved ecosystem. Root uptake of nutrients is governed by fine root biomass, and plants vary in their fine root biomass allocation in order to balance carbon and nutrient limitations to growth. We test the sensitivity of the model to a wide range of parameter variations and structural representations, and in the context of observations at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. A key model prediction is that plants in the high-light-availability canopy positions allocate more carbon to fine roots than plants in low-light understory environments, given the widely different carbon versus nutrient constraints of these two niches within a given ecosystem. This model provides a basis for exploring carbon-nutrient coupling with vegetation demography within Earth system models.

Original language	English
Article number	e2023MS003689
Journal	Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Volume	16
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS003689
State	Published - Mar 2024

Funding

This research was supported as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research. RF acknowledges funding by the European Union's Horizon 2020 (H2020) research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 101003536 (ESM2025—Earth System Models for the Future) and 821003 (4C, Climate-Carbon Interactions in the Coming Century). Steve Paton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was involved in providing the original measurements of meteorological data used to drive these simulations. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was the provider of the original unprocessed meteorological data, as well as the provider of the census data as referenced in (Condit et al., 2017), see http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/physical_monitoring/research/barrocolorado. Helene Muller-Landau provided consultation on the interpretation of raw census data that was used in the calibration of the carbon-only model. This research was supported as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments‐Tropics, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research. RF acknowledges funding by the European Union's Horizon 2020 (H2020) research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 101003536 (ESM2025—Earth System Models for the Future) and 821003 (4C, Climate‐Carbon Interactions in the Coming Century). Steve Paton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was involved in providing the original measurements of meteorological data used to drive these simulations. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was the provider of the original unprocessed meteorological data, as well as the provider of the census data as referenced in (Condit et al., 2017 ), see http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/physical_monitoring/research/barrocolorado . Helene Muller‐Landau provided consultation on the interpretation of raw census data that was used in the calibration of the carbon‐only model.

Keywords

ESM
biogeochemistry
ecosystem
land model
terrestrial
vegetation

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10.1029/2023MS003689

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Knox, R. G., Koven, C. D., Riley, W. J., Walker, A. P., Wright, S. J., Holm, J. A., Wei, X., Fisher, R. A., Zhu, Q., Tang, J., Ricciuto, D. M., Shuman, J. K., Yang, X., Kueppers, L. M., & Chambers, J. Q. (2024). Nutrient Dynamics in a Coupled Terrestrial Biosphere and Land Model (ELM-FATES-CNP). Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 16(3), Article e2023MS003689. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS003689

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abstract = "We present a representation of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator, a demographic vegetation model within the Energy Exascale Earth System land model. This representation is modular, and designed to allow testing of multiple hypothetical approaches for carbon-nutrient coupling in plants. Novel model hypotheses introduced in this work include, (a) the controls on plant acquisition of aqueous mineralized nutrients in the soil and (b) fairly straight forward methods of allocating nutrients to specific plant organs and their losses through live plant turnover as well as litter fluxes generated through plant mortality. This combines the new with pre-existing hypotheses (such as nitrogen fixation and soil decomposition) into a system that can accommodate plant-soil dynamics for a large number of size- and functional-type-resolved plant cohorts within a time-since-disturbance-resolved ecosystem. Root uptake of nutrients is governed by fine root biomass, and plants vary in their fine root biomass allocation in order to balance carbon and nutrient limitations to growth. We test the sensitivity of the model to a wide range of parameter variations and structural representations, and in the context of observations at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. A key model prediction is that plants in the high-light-availability canopy positions allocate more carbon to fine roots than plants in low-light understory environments, given the widely different carbon versus nutrient constraints of these two niches within a given ecosystem. This model provides a basis for exploring carbon-nutrient coupling with vegetation demography within Earth system models.",

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author = "Knox, {Ryan G.} and Koven, {Charles D.} and Riley, {William J.} and Walker, {Anthony P.} and Wright, {S. Joseph} and Holm, {Jennifer A.} and Xinyuan Wei and Fisher, {Rosie A.} and Qing Zhu and Jinyun Tang and Ricciuto, {Daniel M.} and Shuman, {Jacquelyn K.} and Xiaojuan Yang and Kueppers, {Lara M.} and Chambers, {Jeffrey Q.}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 Oak Ridge National laboratory, managed by UT- Battelle, LLC, The Regents of the University of California and The Authors. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.",

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Knox, RG, Koven, CD, Riley, WJ, Walker, AP, Wright, SJ, Holm, JA, Wei, X, Fisher, RA, Zhu, Q, Tang, J, Ricciuto, DM, Shuman, JK, Yang, X, Kueppers, LM & Chambers, JQ 2024, 'Nutrient Dynamics in a Coupled Terrestrial Biosphere and Land Model (ELM-FATES-CNP)', Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, vol. 16, no. 3, e2023MS003689. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS003689

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T1 - Nutrient Dynamics in a Coupled Terrestrial Biosphere and Land Model (ELM-FATES-CNP)

AU - Knox, Ryan G.

AU - Koven, Charles D.

AU - Riley, William J.

AU - Walker, Anthony P.

AU - Wright, S. Joseph

AU - Holm, Jennifer A.

AU - Wei, Xinyuan

AU - Fisher, Rosie A.

AU - Zhu, Qing

AU - Tang, Jinyun

AU - Ricciuto, Daniel M.

AU - Shuman, Jacquelyn K.

AU - Yang, Xiaojuan

AU - Kueppers, Lara M.

AU - Chambers, Jeffrey Q.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Oak Ridge National laboratory, managed by UT- Battelle, LLC, The Regents of the University of California and The Authors. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

PY - 2024/3

Y1 - 2024/3

N2 - We present a representation of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator, a demographic vegetation model within the Energy Exascale Earth System land model. This representation is modular, and designed to allow testing of multiple hypothetical approaches for carbon-nutrient coupling in plants. Novel model hypotheses introduced in this work include, (a) the controls on plant acquisition of aqueous mineralized nutrients in the soil and (b) fairly straight forward methods of allocating nutrients to specific plant organs and their losses through live plant turnover as well as litter fluxes generated through plant mortality. This combines the new with pre-existing hypotheses (such as nitrogen fixation and soil decomposition) into a system that can accommodate plant-soil dynamics for a large number of size- and functional-type-resolved plant cohorts within a time-since-disturbance-resolved ecosystem. Root uptake of nutrients is governed by fine root biomass, and plants vary in their fine root biomass allocation in order to balance carbon and nutrient limitations to growth. We test the sensitivity of the model to a wide range of parameter variations and structural representations, and in the context of observations at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. A key model prediction is that plants in the high-light-availability canopy positions allocate more carbon to fine roots than plants in low-light understory environments, given the widely different carbon versus nutrient constraints of these two niches within a given ecosystem. This model provides a basis for exploring carbon-nutrient coupling with vegetation demography within Earth system models.

AB - We present a representation of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator, a demographic vegetation model within the Energy Exascale Earth System land model. This representation is modular, and designed to allow testing of multiple hypothetical approaches for carbon-nutrient coupling in plants. Novel model hypotheses introduced in this work include, (a) the controls on plant acquisition of aqueous mineralized nutrients in the soil and (b) fairly straight forward methods of allocating nutrients to specific plant organs and their losses through live plant turnover as well as litter fluxes generated through plant mortality. This combines the new with pre-existing hypotheses (such as nitrogen fixation and soil decomposition) into a system that can accommodate plant-soil dynamics for a large number of size- and functional-type-resolved plant cohorts within a time-since-disturbance-resolved ecosystem. Root uptake of nutrients is governed by fine root biomass, and plants vary in their fine root biomass allocation in order to balance carbon and nutrient limitations to growth. We test the sensitivity of the model to a wide range of parameter variations and structural representations, and in the context of observations at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. A key model prediction is that plants in the high-light-availability canopy positions allocate more carbon to fine roots than plants in low-light understory environments, given the widely different carbon versus nutrient constraints of these two niches within a given ecosystem. This model provides a basis for exploring carbon-nutrient coupling with vegetation demography within Earth system models.

KW - ESM

KW - biogeochemistry

KW - ecosystem

KW - land model

KW - terrestrial

KW - vegetation

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ER -

Nutrient Dynamics in a Coupled Terrestrial Biosphere and Land Model (ELM-FATES-CNP)

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