The regional climate–chemistry–ecology coupling model RegCM-Chem (v4.6)–YIBs (v1.0): development and application

Abstract

The interactions between the terrestrial biosphere, atmospheric chemistry, and climate involve complex feedbacks that have traditionally been modeled separately. We present a new framework that couples the Yale Interactive terrestrial Biosphere (YIBs) model, a dynamic plant-chemistry model, with the RegCM-Chem model. RegCM-Chem–YIBs integrates meteorological variables and atmospheric chemical composition from RegCM-Chem with land surface parameters from YIBs. The terrestrial carbon flux calculated by YIBs is fed back into RegCM-Chem interactively, thereby representing the interactions between fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone (O3), and carbon dioxide (CO2). For testing purposes, we carry out a 1-year simulation (2016) at a 30 km horizontal resolution over East Asia with RegCM-Chem–YIBs. The model accurately captures the spatio-temporal distribution of climate, chemical composition, and ecological parameters. In particular, the estimated O3 and PM2.5 are consistent with ground observations, with correlation coefficients (R) of 0.74 and 0.65, respectively. The simulated CO2 concentration is consistent with observations from six sites (R ranged from 0.89 to 0.97) and exhibits a similar spatial pattern when compared with carbon assimilation products. RegCM-Chem–YIBs produces reasonably good gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP), showing seasonal and spatial distributions consistent with satellite observations, and mean biases (MBs) of 0.13 and 0.05 kg C m−2 yr−1. This study illustrates that RegCM-Chem–YIBs is a valuable tool to investigate coupled interactions between the terrestrial carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change at a higher resolution on a regional scale.