-
- B21K-1779: Evaluating C₄ Photosynthesis Representation at NEON Grassland Sites Using the Community Land Model
-
Board 1779‚ Hall EFG (Poster Hall)NOLA CC
Author(s):Generic 'disconnected' Message
Rachel Hallmark, Colorado State University Fort Collins (First Author, Presenting Author)
Danica Lombardozzi, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Photosynthesis is very important to global carbon cycling and therefore important to accurately model when making predictions about future climate. However, photosynthesis is not well represented by Earth system models (ESMs), especially the less common C₄ photosynthetic pathway, which majorly contributes to carbon cycling and food production. This project uses the Community Land model, part of a widely used ESM, to evaluate the representation of C₄ photosynthesis. To evaluate photosynthesis with this model we ran simulations at several grassland sites across the United States. For each simulation we swapped the photosynthetic pathway used by the dominant vegetation at each site, so sites that are dominated by C₃ photosynthetic grasses were run as C₄ photosynthetic grasses and vice versa. We found that swapping the photosynthetic pathway in the model leads to smaller than expected simulated differences in carbon and water fluxes. These small differences from swapping photosynthetic pathway suggest that other environmental drivers like nutrient availability and precipitation may be important in improving C₄ photosynthesis representation in ESMs.
Scientific DisciplineNeighborhoodType
Enter Note
Go to previous page in this tab
Session
