HR: 10:50h
AN: B22B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Importance of Carbon-Nitrogen Interactions on Ecohydrology During the 21st Century
AU: * Felzer, B S
EM: bfelzer@mbl.edu
AF: The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543, United States
AU: Cronin, T W
EM: timothy.w.cronin@gmail.com
AF: The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543, United States
AU: Melillo, J M
EM: jmelillo@mbl.edu
AF: The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543, United States
AU: Kicklighter, D W
EM: dkick@mbl.edu
AF: The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543, United States
AU: Schlosser, A C
EM: casch@mit.edu
AF: Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
AB: The effects of various aspects of global change (e.g., climate change, changes in the chemistry of the atmosphere, such as CO₂ and O₃, and land-use change) on the hydrologic cycle are becoming an important research area. For example, with respect to increases in atmospheric CO₂, recent work supports the contention that there will be reduced evapotranspiration and therefore increased water availability in a CO₂ -rich world. Our new research on this topic suggests that various aspects of global change combine to affect hydrology in terrestrial ecosystems, and that it is particularly important to include carbon-nitrogen interactions in these studies. We have developed a new version of the Terrestrial Ecosystems Model (TEM) to examine the effects of carbon-nitrogen interactions on the water cycle. This new version includes explicit modeling of the stomatal exchange of CO₂ and water, as well as a new approach to carbon and nitrogen allocation in plants. Using this new version of TEM, we have performed a range of site-level and regional experiments across the eastern United States. For example, using data from Harvard Forest, MA, a predominantly deciduous mixed forest, we ran two transient simulations from 1700 to 2100, with and without considering nitrogen limitations on plant productivity. In both of these simulations, we allowed CO₂ to double by 2100, but maintained present- day climate. In these two experiments, we found that runoff increased through the 21st century in response to elevated atmospheric CO₂. Without nitrogen limitation on plant productivity, the increase in runoff was 12%. However, with nitrogen limitation on plant productivity, the increase in runoff nearly doubled to 21%. This difference in runoff response was the result of a stronger transpiration reduction associated with a smaller increase in photosynthesis in the nitrogen limitation case. In this presentation we will discuss a set of site-level and regional experiments that explore the effects of carbon- nitrogen interactions on the water cycle in the context of different combinations of global changes including climate changes, changes in nitrogen deposition, and changes in tropospheric ozone. Since the carbon and water cycles are tightly coupled, future considerations of ecohydrology must take into account carbon-nitrogen interactions and other multiple stresses that strongly influence the carbon cycle.
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 1813 Eco-hydrology
DE: 1884 Water supply
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting