Assessment of the impacts of biological nitrogen fixation structural uncertainty in CMIP6 earth system models

Abstract

Biological nitrogen fixation is the main source of new nitrogen into natural terrestrial ecosystems and consequently in the nitrogen cycle in many earth system models. Representation of biological nitrogen fixation varies, and because of the tight coupling between the carbon and nitrogen cycles, previous studies have shown that this affects projected changes in net primary productivity. Here we present the first assessment of the performance of biological nitrogen fixation in models contributing to CMIP6 compared to observed and observation-constrained estimates of biological nitrogen fixation. We find that 9 out of 10 models represent global total biological nitrogen fixation within the uncertainty in recent global estimates. However, 6 out of 10 models overestimate the amount of fixation in the tropics and therefore the extent of the latitudinal gradient in the global distribution. For the SSP3-7.0 scenario of future climate change, models project increases in fixation over the 21st century of up to 80 %. However, while the historical range of biological nitrogen fixation amongst models is large (up to 140 kg N ha−1 yr−1 at the grid cell level and 43–208 Tg N yr−1 globally) this does not have explanatory power for variations within the model ensemble of net primary productivity or the coupled nitrogen–carbon cycle. Models with shared structures can have significant variations in both biological nitrogen fixation and other parts of the nitrogen cycle without differing in their net primary productivity. This points to systematic challenges in the representation of carbon–nitrogen model structures and the severe limitations of models using net primary productivity or evapotranspiration to project the biological nitrogen fixation response to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide or other environmental changes.