HR: 10:20h
AN: B22A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The Role of Terrestrial Ecosystem Processes in Determining Patterns of Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes and Atmospheric CO$_2$ Concentrations: Results From a Regional-Scale Coupled Atmosphere-Ecosystem Model
AU: * Moorcroft, P R
EM: moorcrof@fas.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard University, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AU: Medvigy, D M
EM: medvigy@fas.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard University, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AU: Wofsy, S C
EM: scw@io.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard University, 110 Pierce Hall Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AB: Inverse studies of the carbon cycle have traditionally relied on low-frequency flask measurements collected at remote stations specifically located to eliminate variance in CO$_2$ concentrations arising from terrestrial processes. The insensitivity of these observations to terrestrial CO$_2$ fluxes makes it difficult to infer regional terrestrial carbon fluxes or to attribute large-scale fluxes to particular causes such as climate variability, land-use change or CO$_2$ fertilization. We are addressing this issue by developing a constrained implementation of Regional Atmospheric Modeling System-Ecosystem Demography Model Version 2 (RAMS- ED2) for the New England region. RAMS-ED2 is a new, coupled atmosphere-ecosystem model that naturally scales between the fast timescale responses of individual plants to the atmosphere and the long-term, regional-scale dynamics of heterogeneous ecosystems subject to land-use change and forest harvesting. The model is designed to predict carbon fluxes on spatial scales from hectares to thousands of square kilometers that are consistent with fast timescale flux-tower measurements of CO$_2$ fluxes, seasonal measurements of canopy phenology from remote sensing data and decadal scale forest inventory measurements and land-use history forcing. The ecosystem state variables and environmental response functions of the optimized model provide a comprehensive description of short and long term factors regulating fluxes in the regional carbon cycle. The optimized model will provide a unique tool for quantifying the contributions of environmental forcing, ecosystem recovery from land-use change, forest harvesting and CO$_2$ fertilization to current and future patterns of terrestrial carbon fluxes and resulting patterns of atmospheric CO$_2$ concentrations in North America.
DE: 9350 North America
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting