B23C-0210:
Dynamics of global vegetation biomass simulated by the integrated Earth System Model

Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Jiafu Mao1, Xiaoying Shi1, Alan V Di Vittorio2, Peter E Thornton3, Shilong Piao4, Xuebin Yang5, John Truesdale6, Ben P Bond-Lamberty7, Louise P Chini8, Allison M Thomson7, George C Hurtt9, William Collins10 and James Edmonds7, (1)Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, (2)Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA, United States, (3)Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, (4)Peking University, Beijing, China, (5)University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geography and Environment, Austin, TX, United States, (6)Independent contractor with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (7)Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, MD, United States, (8)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (9)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (10)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
Abstract:
The global vegetation biomass stores huge amounts of carbon and is thus important to the global carbon budget (Pan et al., 2010). For the past few decades, different observation-based estimates and modeling of biomass in the above- and below-ground vegetation compartments have been comprehensively conducted (Saatchi et al., 2011; Baccini et al., 2012). However, uncertainties still exist, in particular for the simulation of biomass magnitude, tendency, and the response of biomass to climatic conditions and natural and human disturbances. The recently successful coupling of the integrated Earth System Model (iESM) (Di Vittorio et al., 2014; Bond-Lamberty et al., 2014), which links the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), Global Land-use Model (GLM), and Community Earth System Model (CESM), offers a great opportunity to understand the biomass-related dynamics in a fully-coupled natural and human modeling system. In this study, we focus on the systematic analysis and evaluation of the iESM simulated historical (1850-2005) and future (2006-2100) biomass changes and the response of the biomass dynamics to various impact factors, in particular the human-induced Land Use/Land Cover Change (LULCC). By analyzing the iESM simulations with and without the interactive LULCC feedbacks, we further study how and where the climate feedbacks affect socioeconomic decisions and LULCC, such as to alter vegetation carbon storage.

 References

  1. Pan Y et. al: A large and persistent carbon sink in the World’s forests. Science 2011, 333:988–993.
  2. Saatchi SS et al: Benchmark map of forest carbon stocks in tropical regions across three continents. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2011, 108:9899–9904.
  3. Baccini A et al: Estimated carbon dioxide emissions from tropical deforestation improved by carbon-density maps. Nature Clim Change 2012, 2:182–185.
  4. Di Vittorio AV et al: From land use to land cover: restoring the afforestation signal in a coupled integrated assessment-earth system model and the implications for CMIP5 RCP simulations. Biogeosciences Discuss 2014, 11:7151-7188.
  5. Bond-Lamberty, B et al: Coupling earth system and integrated assessment models: The problem of steady state. Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss 2014, 7: 1499-1524, doi:10.5194/gmdd-7-1499-2014.
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