North America Terrestrial Carbon Budget: A Model Analysis of the Combined Effects of CO2, Nitrogen, Climate, Land Use Changes and Management
Atul
K.
Jain, University of Illinois, jain1@uiuc.edu
(Presenting)
Xiaojuan
Yang, University of Illinois, xyang5@uiuc.edu
Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain present trends in the terrestrial uptake of CO2. These mechanisms include physiological responses of terrestrial ecosystems to increasing ambient CO2 concentrations, anthropogenic N deposition, and variations in productivity due to climate variability and changes in land-use and management. Each of these mechanisms may be playing a significant role in the global CO2 budget. In addition, changes in soil management can potentially increase the accumulation of soil organic carbon (SOC) in addition to anthropogenic disturbances, which include clearing of land for agriculture, conversion of forest to pasture, and harvest of forest products. We present the concurrent effects of all important ecosystem processes and anthropogenic disturbances and management practices on North America terrestrial carbon budget, for the historical period 1900-2000, using an Integrated Science Assessment Model (ISAM), a geographically explicit advanced terrestrial ecosystem model which simulates the carbon and nitrogen fluxes to and from different compartments of the terrestrial biosphere with 0.5-by-0.5 degree spatial resolution.
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