Abstract. Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are used for studying historical and future changes to vegetation and the terrestrial carbon cycle. JULES (the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) represents the land surface in the Hadley Centre climate models and in the UK Earth System Model. Recently the number of plant functional types (PFTs) in JULES were expanded from 5 to 9 to better represent functional diversity in global ecosystems. Here we introduce a more mechanistic representation of vegetation dynamics in TRIFFID, the dynamic vegetation component of JULES, that allows for any number of PFTs to compete based solely on their height, removing the previous hardwired dominance hierarchy where dominant types are assumed to outcompete subdominant types. With the new set of 9 PFTs, JULES is able to more accurately reproduce global vegetation distribution compared to the former 5 PFT version. Improvements include the coverage of trees within tropical and boreal forests, and a reduction in shrubs, which dominated at high latitudes. We show that JULES is able to realistically represent several aspects of the global carbon cycle. The simulated gross primary productivity (GPP) is within the range of observations, but simulated net primary productivity (NPP) is slightly too high. GPP in JULES from 1982–2011 was 133 PgC yr−1, compared to observation-based estimates between 123±8 (over the same time period) and 150–175 PgC yr−1. NPP from 2000–2013 was 72 PgC yr−1, compared to satellite-derived NPP of 55 PgC yr−1 over the same period and independent estimates of 56.2±14.3 PgC yr−1. The simulated carbon stored in vegetation is 542 PgC, compared to an observation-based range of 400–600 PgC. Soil carbon is much lower (1422 PgC) than estimates from measurements (>2400 PgC), with large underestimations of soil carbon in the tropical and boreal forests. We also examined some aspects of the historical terrestrial carbon sink as simulated by JULES. Between the 1900s and 2000s, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels enhanced vegetation productivity and litter inputs into the soils, while land-use change removed vegetation and reduced soil carbon. The result was a simulated increase in soil carbon of 57 PgC but a decrease in vegetation carbon by of PgC. JULES simulated a loss of soil and vegetation carbon of 14 and 124 PgC, respectively, due to land-use change from 1900–2009. The simulated land carbon sink was 2.0±1.0 PgC yr−1 from 2000–2009, in close agreement to estimates from the IPCC and Global Carbon Project.
A fully traits-based approach to modeling global vegetation distribution
