Development of a plant carbon–nitrogen interface coupling framework in a coupled biophysical-ecosystem–biogeochemical model (SSiB5/TRIFFID/DayCent-SOM v1.0)

Abstract

Plant and microbial nitrogen (N) dynamics and N availability regulate the photosynthetic capacity and capture, allocation, and turnover of carbon (C) in terrestrial ecosystems. Studies have shown that a wide divergence in representations of N dynamics in land surface models leads to large uncertainties in the biogeochemical cycle of terrestrial ecosystems and then in climate simulations as well as the projections of future trajectories. In this study, a plant C–N interface coupling framework is developed and implemented in a coupled biophysical-ecosystem–biogeochemical model (SSiB5/TRIFFID/DayCent-SOM v1.0). The main concept and structure of this plant C–N framework and its coupling strategy are presented in this study. This framework takes more plant N-related processes into account. The dynamic C/N ratio (CNR) for each plant functional type (PFT) is introduced to consider plant resistance and adaptation to N availability to better evaluate the plant response to N limitation. Furthermore, when available N is less than plant N demand, plant growth is restricted by a lower maximum carboxylation capacity of RuBisCO (Vc,max), reducing gross primary productivity (GPP). In addition, a module for plant respiration rates is introduced by adjusting the respiration with different rates for different plant components at the same N concentration. Since insufficient N can potentially give rise to lags in plant phenology, the phenological scheme is also adjusted in response to N availability. All these considerations ensure a more comprehensive incorporation of N regulations to plant growth and C cycling. This new approach has been tested systematically to assess the effects of this coupling framework and N limitation on the terrestrial carbon cycle. Long-term measurements from flux tower sites with different PFTs and global satellite-derived products are employed as references to assess these effects. The results show a general improvement with the new plant C–N coupling framework, with more consistent emergent properties, such as GPP and leaf area index (LAI), compared to the observations. The main improvements occur in tropical Africa and boreal regions, accompanied by a decrease in the bias in global GPP and LAI by 16.3 % and 27.1 %, respectively.