Evaluating the E3SM Land Model at a temperate forest site using flux and soil water measurements
Accurate simulations of soil respiration and carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux are critical to project global biogeochemical cycles and the magnitude of carbon (C) feedbacks to climate change in Earth system models (ESMs). Currently, soil respiration is not represented well in ESMs, and few studies have attempted to address this deficiency. In this study, we evaluated the simulation of soil respiration in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) using long-term observations from the Missouri Ozark AmeriFlux (MOFLUX) forest site in the central U.S. Simulations using the default model parameters significantly underestimated annual soil respiration and gross primary production, while underestimating soil water potential during growing seasons and overestimating it during non-growing seasons. A site-specific soil water retention curve significantly improved modelled soil water potential, gross primary production and soil respiration. However, the model continued to underestimate soil respiration during peak growing seasons, and overestimate soil respiration during non-peak growing seasons. One potential reason may be that the current model does not adequately represent the seasonal cycle of microbial organisms and soil macroinvertebrates, which have high biomass and activity during peak growing seasons and tend to be dormant during non-growing seasons. In conclusion, our results confirm that modelling soil respiration can be significantly improved by better model representations of the soil water retention curve.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1468013
- Journal Information:
- Geoscientific Model Development Discussions (Online), Vol. 12, Issue 4; Related Information: preprint; ISSN 1991-962X
- Publisher:
- European Geosciences Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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