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Exports of Water, Carbon and Nutrients to the U.S. East Coast during 1901-2008 as simulated by DLEM: Results from a NASA IDS Project
Hanqin
Tian, Auburn University, tianhan@auburn.edu
As the most populated area in the U.S, the East Coast region has experienced extensive climate related changes and anthropogenic disturbances. For better understanding of how climate variability and climate changes, land-use conversions, as well as land management practices and their interactions have affected regional hydrological cycles and riverine material fluxes in U.S East Coast, the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM) has been applied to characterize the temporal and spatial variations of water, carbon and nutrients exports during 1901- 2008 in this area. Currently DLEM has coupled hydrologic process, soil biogeochemical processes, vegetation dynamics, and aquatic biochemical processes. Performance of the model was evaluated intensively against USGS hydrological and water quality observation data. Results of this study demonstrated that river discharge in the East Coast decreased about 19% since 1971; Total organic carbon (TOC) increased about 10% since the beginning of the 1970s; Total nitrogen (TN) export increased by about 35% during 1901-2008. Results derived from factorial simulation experiments indicated that 1) Climate change and variability is the dominant factor controlling the inter-annual variations of river discharge and TOC export in the east coast; 2) Land use and management and nitrogen deposition play the major role in affecting total nitrogen export. Presentation Type: Poster Session: Coupled Processes at Land-Atmosphere-Ocean Interfaces (Mon 4:00 PM) Associated Project(s):
Poster Location ID: 21
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