Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2946
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2946
22 Feb 2024
 | 22 Feb 2024

Biological nitrogen fixation of natural and agricultural vegetation simulated with LPJmL 5.7.9

Stephen Björn Wirth, Johanna Braun, Jens Heinke, Sebastian Ostberg, Susanne Rolinski, Sibyll Schaphoff, Fabian Stenzel, Werner von Bloh, and Christoph Müller

Abstract. Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) by symbiotic and free living bacteria is an important source of plant-available nitrogen (N) in terrestrial ecosystems supporting carbon (C) sequestration and food production worldwide. Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are frequently used to assess the N and C cycle under dynamic land use and climate. BNF plays an important role for the components of both these cycles making a robust representation of the processes and variables that BNF depends on important to reduce uncertainty within the C and N cycles and improve the ability of DGVMs to project future ecosystem productivity, vegetation patterns or the land carbon sink. Still, BNF is often modelled as a function of net primary productivity or evapotranspiration neglecting the actual drivers. We implemented plant functional type-specific limitations for BNF dependent on soil temperature and soil water content as well as a cost of BNF in the Lund Potsdam Jena managed Land (LPJmL) DGVM and compare the new (C-costly) against the previous (Original) approach and data from the scientific literature. For our comparison we simulated a potential natural vegetation scenario and one including anthropogenic land use for the period from 1901 to 2016 for which we evaluate BNF and legume crop yields. Our results show stronger agreement with BNF observations for the C-costly than the Original approach for natural vegetation and agricultural areas. The C-costly approach reduced the overestimation of BNF especially in hot spots of legume crop production. Despite the reduced BNF in the C-costly approach, yields of legume crops were similar to the Original approach. While the net C and N balances were similar between the two approaches, the reduced BNF in the C-costly approach results in a slight underestimation of N losses from leaching, emissions and harvest compared to literature values, supporting further investigation of underlying reasons, such as processes represented in DGVMs and scenario assumptions. While we see potential for further model development, for example to separate symbiotic and free living BNF, the C-costly approach is a major improvement over the simple Original approach because of the separate representation of important drivers and limiting factors of BNF and improves the ability of LPJmL to project future C and N cycle dynamics.

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Stephen Björn Wirth, Johanna Braun, Jens Heinke, Sebastian Ostberg, Susanne Rolinski, Sibyll Schaphoff, Fabian Stenzel, Werner von Bloh, and Christoph Müller

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2946', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 Apr 2024
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2946', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Apr 2024

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2946', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 Apr 2024
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2946', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Apr 2024
Stephen Björn Wirth, Johanna Braun, Jens Heinke, Sebastian Ostberg, Susanne Rolinski, Sibyll Schaphoff, Fabian Stenzel, Werner von Bloh, and Christoph Müller

Model code and software

Model code for LPJmL5.7.9-ccostly-bnf Stephen Björn Wirth, Susanne Rolinski, Sibyll Schaphoff, Werner von Bloh, and Christoph Müller https://zenodo.org/records/10257030

Stephen Björn Wirth, Johanna Braun, Jens Heinke, Sebastian Ostberg, Susanne Rolinski, Sibyll Schaphoff, Fabian Stenzel, Werner von Bloh, and Christoph Müller

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Short summary
We present a new approach to model biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in the Lund Potsdam Jena managed Land dynamic global vegetation model. While in the original approach BNF depended on actual evapotranspiration, the new approach considers soil water content and temperature, the nitrogen (N) deficit and carbon (C) costs. The new approach improved global sums and spatial patterns of BNF compared to the scientific literature and the models’ ability to project future C and N cycle dynamics.