Evaluating the simulated mean soil carbon transit times by Earth system models using observations

Wang, Jing; Xia, Jianyang; Zhou, Xuhui; Huang, Kun; Zhou, Jian; Huang, Yuanyuan; Jiang, Lifen; Xu, Xia; Liang, Junyi; Wang, Ying-Ping; Cheng, Xiaoli; Luo, Yiqi

doi:10.5194/bg-16-917-2019

Title: Evaluating the simulated mean soil carbon transit times by Earth system models using observations

Journal Article · Wed Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Biogeosciences (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-917-2019· OSTI ID:1502524

^[1]; Xia, Jianyang ^[1];

^[1]; Huang, Kun ^[1]; Zhou, Jian ^[1]; Huang, Yuanyuan ^[2]; Jiang, Lifen ^[3]; Xu, Xia ^[4];

^[5];

^[6]; Cheng, Xiaoli ^[7]; Luo, Yiqi ^[8]

East China Normal University, Shanghai (China)
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (France)
Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
Nanjing Forestry University (China)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
CSIRO Ocean and Atmosphere, Victoria (Australia)
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan (China)
Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)

One known bias in current Earth system models (ESMs) is the underestimation of global mean soil carbon (C) transit time (τ_soil), which quantifies the age of the C atoms at the time they leave the soil. However, it remains unclear where such underestimations are located globally. Here, we constructed a global database of measured τ_soil across 187 sites to evaluate results from 12 ESMs. The observations showed that the estimated τ_soil was dramatically shorter from the soil incubation studies in the laboratory environment (median = 4 years; interquartile range = 1 to 25 years) than that derived from field in situ measurements (31; 5 to 84 years) with shifts in stable isotopic C(¹³C) or the stock-over-flux approach. In comparison with the field observations, the multi-model ensemble simulated a shorter median (19 years) anda smaller spatial variation (6 to 29 years) of τ_soil across the same site locations. We then found a significant and negative linear correlation between the in situ measured τ_soil and mean annual air temperature. The underestimations of modeled τ_soil are mainly located in cold and dry biomes, especially tundra and desert.Furthermore, we showed that one ESM (i.e., CESM) has improved its τ_soil estimate by incorporation of the soil vertical profile. These findings indicate that the spatial variation of τ_soil is a useful benchmark for ESMs, and we recommend more observations and modeling efforts on soil C dynamics in regions limited by temperature and moisture.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1502524

Journal Information:: Biogeosciences (Online), Vol. 16, Issue 4; ISSN 1726-4189

Publisher:: European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 5 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (51)

Sustainability of terrestrial carbon sequestration: A case study in Duke Forest with inversion approach: SUSTAINABILITY OF TERRESTRIAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION Luo, Yiqi; White, Luther W.; Canadell, Josep G. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GB001923	journal	March 2003
The muddle of ages, turnover, transit, and residence times in the carbon cycle Sierra, Carlos A.; Müller, Markus; Metzler, Holger Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13556	journal	November 2016
Global soil carbon projections are improved by modelling microbial processes Wieder, William R.; Bonan, Gordon B.; Allison, Steven D. Nature Climate Change, Vol. 3, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1951	journal	July 2013
Comparison of dryland climate change in observations and CMIP5 simulations Ji, Mingxia; Huang, Jianping; Xie, Yongkun Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 32, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-015-4267-8	journal	September 2015
Rapid Exchange Between Soil Carbon and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Driven by Temperature Change Trumbore, S. E.; Chadwick, O. A.; Amundson, R. Science, Vol. 272, Issue 5260 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.272.5260.393	journal	April 1996
Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback Schuur, E. A. G.; McGuire, A. D.; Schädel, C. Nature, Vol. 520, Issue 7546 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14338	journal	April 2015
A general mathematical framework for representing soil organic matter dynamics Sierra, Carlos A.; Müller, Markus Ecological Monographs, Vol. 85, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0361.1	journal	November 2015
C4MIP – The Coupled Climate–Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project: experimental protocol for CMIP6 Jones, Chris D.; Arora, Vivek; Friedlingstein, Pierre Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 9, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-2853-2016	journal	January 2016
Toward more realistic projections of soil carbon dynamics by Earth system models: SOIL CARBON MODELING Luo, Yiqi; Ahlström, Anders; Allison, Steven D. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 30, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GB005239	journal	January 2016
Natural 13C abundance as a tracer for studies of soil organic matter dynamics Balesdent, Jérôme; Mariotti, André; Guillet, Bernard Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 19, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-0717(87)90120-9	journal	January 1987
Causes of variation in soil carbon simulations from CMIP5 Earth system models and comparison with observations Todd-Brown, K. E. O.; Randerson, J. T.; Post, W. M. Biogeosciences, Vol. 10, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-1717-2013	journal	January 2013
Mean residence time of O horizon carbon along a climatic gradient in Scandinavia estimated by 14C measurements of archived soils Fröberg, Mats; Tipping, Edward; Stendahl, Johan Biogeochemistry, Vol. 104, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-010-9497-3	journal	July 2010
Linear Autonomous Compartmental Models as Continuous-Time Markov Chains: Transit-Time and Age Distributions Metzler, Holger; Sierra, Carlos A. Mathematical Geosciences, Vol. 50, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11004-017-9690-1	journal	July 2017
MODIS Collection 5 global land cover: Algorithm refinements and characterization of new datasets Friedl, Mark A.; Sulla-Menashe, Damien; Tan, Bin Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 114, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.08.016	journal	January 2010
Nitrogen cycling and feedbacks in a global dynamic land model: MODELING THE LAND NITROGEN CYCLE Gerber, Stefan; Hedin, Lars O.; Oppenheimer, Michael Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 24, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GB003336	journal	January 2010
Matrix approach to land carbon cycle modeling: A case study with the Community Land Model Huang, Yuanyuan; Lu, Xingjie; Shi, Zheng Global Change Biology, Vol. 24, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13948	journal	November 2017
Climate–Carbon Cycle Feedback Analysis: Results from the C ⁴ MIP Model Intercomparison Friedlingstein, P.; Cox, P.; Betts, R. Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3800.1	journal	July 2006
Soil carbon saturation: Evaluation and corroboration by long-term incubations Stewart, Catherine E.; Paustian, Keith; Conant, Richard T. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 40, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2008.02.014	journal	July 2008
Large divergence of satellite and Earth system model estimates of global terrestrial CO2 fertilization Kolby Smith, W.; Reed, Sasha C.; Cleveland, Cory C. Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2879	journal	December 2015
Application of eddy covariance measurements to the temperature dependence of soil organic matter mean residence time: SOIL ORGANIC CARBON TURNOVER Sanderman, Jonathan; Amundson, Ronald G.; Baldocchi, Dennis D. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 17, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GB001833	journal	June 2003
How long do elements cycle in terrestrial ecosystems? Spohn, Marie; Sierra, Carlos A. Biogeochemistry, Vol. 139, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-018-0452-z	journal	May 2018
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle: Climate Relations in Eight CMIP5 Earth System Models Shao, Pu; Zeng, Xubin; Sakaguchi, Koichi Journal of Climate, Vol. 26, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00831.1	journal	November 2013
Transit-time and age distributions for nonlinear time-dependent compartmental systems Metzler, Holger; Müller, Markus; Sierra, Carlos A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 115, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705296115	journal	January 2018
The effect of vertically resolved soil biogeochemistry and alternate soil C and N models on C dynamics of CLM4 Koven, C. D.; Riley, W. J.; Subin, Z. M. Biogeosciences, Vol. 10, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-7109-2013	journal	January 2013
Spatial representation of organic carbon and active-layer thickness of high latitude soils in CMIP5 earth system models Mishra, Umakant; Drewniak, Beth; Jastrow, Julie D. Geoderma, Vol. 300 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.04.017	journal	August 2017
Radiocarbon constraints imply reduced carbon uptake by soils during the 21st century He, Y.; Trumbore, S. E.; Torn, M. S. Science, Vol. 353, Issue 6306 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad4273	journal	September 2016
Higher climatological temperature sensitivity of soil carbon in cold than warm climates Koven, Charles D.; Hugelius, Gustaf; Lawrence, David M. Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3421	journal	October 2017
Soil-carbon response to warming dependent on microbial physiology Allison, Steven D.; Wallenstein, Matthew D.; Bradford, Mark A. Nature Geoscience, Vol. 3, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo846	journal	April 2010
Kernel Quantile Estimators Sheather, Simon J.; Marron, J. S. Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 85, Issue 410 https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1990.10476214	journal	June 1990
Traceable components of terrestrial carbon storage capacity in biogeochemical models Xia, Jianyang; Luo, Yiqi; Wang, Ying-Ping Global Change Biology, Vol. 19, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12172	journal	March 2013
The dominant role of semi-arid ecosystems in the trend and variability of the land CO2 sink Ahlstrom, A.; Raupach, M. R.; Schurgers, G. Science, Vol. 348, Issue 6237 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa1668	journal	May 2015
Global covariation of carbon turnover times with climate in terrestrial ecosystems Carvalhais, Nuno; Forkel, Matthias; Khomik, Myroslava Nature, Vol. 514, Issue 7521 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13731	journal	September 2014
Contribution of semi-arid ecosystems to interannual variability of the global carbon cycle Poulter, Benjamin; Frank, David; Ciais, Philippe Nature, Vol. 509, Issue 7502 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13376	journal	May 2014
Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property Schmidt, Michael W. I.; Torn, Margaret S.; Abiven, Samuel Nature, Vol. 478, Issue 7367 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10386	journal	October 2011
The decadal state of the terrestrial carbon cycle: Global retrievals of terrestrial carbon allocation, pools, and residence times Bloom, A. Anthony; Exbrayat, Jean-François; van der Velde, Ivar R. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1515160113	journal	January 2016
Managing uncertainty in soil carbon feedbacks to climate change Bradford, Mark A.; Wieder, William R.; Bonan, Gordon B. Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3071	journal	July 2016
Representing and Understanding the Carbon Cycle Using the Theory of Compartmental Dynamical Systems Sierra, Carlos A.; Ceballos-Núñez, Verónika; Metzler, Holger Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 10, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018MS001360	journal	August 2018
A note on the concepts of age distribution and transit time in natural reservoirs Bolin, Bert; Rodhe, Henning Tellus, Vol. 25, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1973.tb01594.x	journal	February 1973
Ecosystem carbon transit versus turnover times in response to climate warming and rising atmospheric CO ₂ concentration Lu, Xingjie; Wang, Ying-Ping; Luo, Yiqi Biogeosciences, Vol. 15, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6559-2018	journal	January 2018
Methodological uncertainty in estimating carbon turnover times of soil fractions Feng, Wenting; Shi, Zheng; Jiang, Jiang Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 100 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2016.06.003	journal	September 2016
Methods for estimating temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter based on incubation data: A comparative evaluation Liang, Junyi; Li, Dejun; Shi, Zheng Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 80 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.10.005	journal	January 2015
Soil properties control decomposition of soil organic carbon: Results from data-assimilation analysis Xu, Xia; Shi, Zheng; Li, Dejun Geoderma, Vol. 262 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.08.038	journal	January 2016
Soil carbon dynamics following land-use change varied with temperature and precipitation gradients: evidence from stable isotopes Zhang, Kerong; Dang, Haishan; Zhang, Quanfa Global Change Biology, Vol. 21, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12886	journal	April 2015
Transit times and mean ages for nonautonomous and autonomous compartmental systems Rasmussen, Martin; Hastings, Alan; Smith, Matthew J. Journal of Mathematical Biology, Vol. 73, Issue 6-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-016-0990-8	journal	April 2016
Linear Analysis of soil Decomposition: Insights from the Century Model Bolker, Benjamin M.; Pacala, Stephen W.; Parton, William J. Ecological Applications, Vol. 8, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(1998)008[0425:LAOSDI]2.0.CO;2	journal	May 1998
A note on the concepts of age distribution and transit time in natural reservoirs Bolin, Bert; Rodhe, Henning Tellus, Vol. 25, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusa.v25i1.9644	journal	January 1973
Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property Schmidt, M. W. I.; Torn, M. S.; Abiven, S. Nature Publishing Group https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-51257	text	January 2011
Transit times and mean ages for nonautonomous and autonomous compartmental systems Rasmussen, Martin; Hastings, Alan; Smith, Matthew J. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1603.02497	preprint	January 2016
Terrestrial ecosystem model performance in simulating productivity and its vulnerability to climate change in the northern permafrost region: Modeled Productivity in Permafrost Regions Xia, Jianyang; McGuire, A. David; Lawrence, David Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 122, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016jg003384	journal	February 2017
Comparison of carbon dynamics in tropical and temperate soils using radiocarbon measurements Trumbore, Susan E. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1029/93gb00468	journal	June 1993
Toward more realistic projections of soil carbon dynamics by Earth system models Luo, Yiqi; Ahlstrom, Anders; Allison, Steven D. AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION https://doi.org/10.35099/aurora-99	text	January 2016

Figures / Tables (5)

Similar Records

Evaluation of global simulations of aerosol particle and cloud condensation nuclei number, with implications for cloud droplet formation

Journal Article · Mon Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:1502524

Fanourgakis, George S.; Kanakidou, Maria; Nenes, Athanasios; +36 more

Intercomparison and improvement of two-stream shortwave radiative transfer schemes in Earth system models for a unified treatment of cryospheric surfaces

Journal Article · Fri Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · The Cryosphere (Online) · OSTI ID:1502524

Dang, Cheng; Zender, Charles S.; Flanner, Mark G.

Global Carbon Budget 2018

Journal Article · Wed Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Earth System Science Data (Online) · OSTI ID:1502524

Le Quéré, Corinne; Andrew, Robbie M.; Friedlingstein, Pierre; +73 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Title: Evaluating the simulated mean soil carbon transit times by Earth system models using observations

Citation Formats

References (51)

Figures / Tables (5)

Similar Records

Related Subjects