A02. Examining the role of phosphorus cycle in land responses to environmental changes

Title

Examining the role of phosphorus cycle in land responses to environmental changes

Authors

Xiaojuan Yang, Peter Thornton, Daniel Ricciuto

Abstract

One of the major developments in the E3SM Land Model (ELM v1) is the introduction of a prognostic P cycle and C-N-P cycle interactions. In this study, we perform a series of single factor global scale simulations with and without P cycle on. The objective is to examine the role of phosphorus cycle dynamics on land carbon fluxes under different environmental changes. We show that the inclusion of P dynamics and C-N-P interactions leads to different land responses to changes in atmospheric CO2, climate, land use change and nitrogen deposition. Our results suggest that previous modelling effort without considering P cycle dynamics likely overestimate the land’s capacity to uptake carbon from the atmosphere. We conclude that the explicit, prognostic representation of P cycle in ESMs is essential for the prediction of future terrestrial carbon uptake and atmospheric CO2 concentration.