scholarly journals Identification of linear response functions from arbitrary perturbation experiments in the presence of noise – Part 2: Application to the land carbon cycle in the MPI Earth System Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-564
Author(s):  
Guilherme L. Torres Mendonça ◽  
Julia Pongratz ◽  
Christian H. Reick

Abstract. The response function identification method introduced in the first part of this study is applied here to investigate the land carbon cycle in the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Earth System Model. We identify from standard C4MIP 1 % experiments the linear response functions that generalize the land carbon sensitivities β and γ. The identification of these generalized sensitivities is shown to be robust by demonstrating their predictive power when applied to experiments not used for their identification. The linear regime for which the generalized framework is valid is estimated, and approaches to improve the quality of the results are proposed. For the generalized γ sensitivity, the response is found to be linear for temperature perturbations until at least 6 K. When this sensitivity is identified from a 2×CO2 experiment instead of the 1 % experiment, its predictive power improves, indicating an enhancement in the quality of the identification. For the generalized β sensitivity, the linear regime is found to extend up to CO2 perturbations of 100 ppm. We find that nonlinearities in the β response arise mainly from the nonlinear relationship between net primary production and CO2. By taking as forcing the resulting net primary production instead of CO2, the response is approximately linear until CO2 perturbations of about 850 ppm. Taking net primary production as forcing also substantially improves the spectral resolution of the generalized β sensitivity. For the best recovery of this sensitivity, we find a spectrum of internal timescales with two peaks, at 4 and 100 years. Robustness of this result is demonstrated by two independent tests. We find that the two-peak spectrum can be explained by the different characteristic timescales of functionally different elements of the land carbon cycle. The peak at 4 years results from the collective response of carbon pools whose dynamics is governed by fast processes, namely pools representing living vegetation tissues (leaves, fine roots, sugars, and starches) and associated litter. The peak at 100 years results from the collective response of pools whose dynamics is determined by slow processes, namely the pools that represent the wood in stem and coarse roots, the associated litter, and the soil carbon (humus). Analysis of the response functions that characterize these two groups of pools shows that the pools with fast dynamics dominate the land carbon response only for times below 2 years. For times above 25 years the response is completely determined by the pools with slow dynamics. From 100 years onwards only the humus pool contributes to the land carbon response.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme L. Torres Mendonça ◽  
Julia Pongratz ◽  
Christian H. Reick

Abstract. The Response Function Identification method introduced in the first part of this study is applied here to investigate the land carbon cycle in the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Earth System Model. We identify from standard C4MIP 1 % experiments the linear response functions that generalize the land carbon sensitivities β and γ. The identification of these generalized sensitivities is shown to be robust by demonstrating their predictive power when applied to experiments not used for their identification. The linear regime for which the generalized framework is valid is estimated, and approaches to improve the quality of the results are proposed. For the generalized γ-sensitivity, the response is found to be linear for temperature perturbations until at least 6 K. When this sensitivity is identified from a 2 x CO2 experiment instead of the 1 % experiment, its predictive power improves, indicating an enhancement in the quality of the identification. For the generalized β-sensitivity, the linear regime is found to extend up to CO2 perturbations of 100 ppm. We find that nonlinearities in the β-response arise mainly from the nonlinear relationship between Net Primary Production and CO2. By taking instead of CO2 the resulting Net Primary Production as forcing, the response is approximately linear until CO2 perturbations of about 850 ppm. Taking Net Primary Production as forcing also substantially improves the spectral resolution of the generalized β-sensitivity. For the best recovery of this sensitivity, we find a spectrum of internal time scales with two peaks, at 4 and 100 years. Robustness of this result is demonstrated by two independent tests. We find that the two-peak spectrum can be explained by the different characteristic time scales of functionally different elements of the land carbon cycle. The peak at 4 years results from the collective response of carbon pools whose dynamics is governed by fast processes, namely pools representing living vegetation tissues (leaves, fine roots, sugars, and starches) and associated litter. The peak at 100 years results from the collective response of pools whose dynamics is determined by slow processes, namely the pools that represent the wood in stem and coarse roots, the associated litter, and the soil carbon (humus). Analysis of the response functions that characterize these two groups of pools shows that the pools with fast dynamics dominate the land carbon response only for times below 2 years. For times above 25 years the response is completely determined by the pools with slow dynamics. From 100 years onwards only the humus pool contributes to the land carbon response.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 6521-6539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Brenna ◽  
Steffen Kutterolf ◽  
Michael J. Mills ◽  
Kirstin Krüger

Abstract. The supereruption of Los Chocoyos (14.6∘ N, 91.2∘ W) in Guatemala ∼84 kyr ago was one of the largest volcanic events of the past 100 000 years. Recent petrologic data show that the eruption released very large amounts of climate-relevant sulfur and ozone-destroying chlorine and bromine gases (523±94 Mt sulfur, 1200±156 Mt chlorine, and 2±0.46 Mt bromine). Using the Earth system model (ESM) of the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) coupled with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 6 (WACCM6), we simulated the impacts of the sulfur- and halogen-rich Los Chocoyos eruption on the preindustrial Earth system. Our simulations show that elevated sulfate burden and aerosol optical depth (AOD) persists for 5 years in the model, while the volcanic halogens stay elevated for nearly 15 years. As a consequence, the eruption leads to a collapse of the ozone layer with global mean column ozone values dropping to 50 DU (80 % decrease) and leading to a 550 % increase in surface UV over the first 5 years, with potential impacts on the biosphere. The volcanic eruption shows an asymmetric-hemispheric response with enhanced aerosol, ozone, UV, and climate signals over the Northern Hemisphere. Surface climate is impacted globally due to peak AOD of >6, which leads to a maximum surface cooling of >6 K, precipitation and terrestrial net primary production decrease of >25 %, and sea ice area increases of 40 % in the first 3 years. Locally, a wetting (>100 %) and strong increase in net primary production (NPP) (>700 %) over northern Africa is simulated in the first 5 years and related to a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to the southern tropics. The ocean responds with pronounced El Niño conditions in the first 3 years that shift to the southern tropics and are coherent with the ITCZ change. Recovery to pre-eruption ozone levels and climate takes 15 years and 30 years, respectively. The long-lasting surface cooling is sustained by an immediate increase in the Arctic sea ice area, followed by a decrease in poleward ocean heat transport at 60∘ N which lasts up to 20 years. In contrast, when simulating Los Chocoyos conventionally by including sulfur and neglecting halogens, we simulate a larger sulfate burden and AOD, more pronounced surface climate changes, and an increase in column ozone. By comparing our aerosol chemistry ESM results to other supereruption simulations with aerosol climate models, we find a higher surface climate impact per injected sulfur amount than previous studies for our different sets of model experiments, since the CESM2(WACCM6) creates smaller aerosols with a longer lifetime, partly due to the interactive aerosol chemistry. As the model uncertainties for the climate response to supereruptions are very large, observational evidence from paleo archives and a coordinated model intercomparison would help to improve our understanding of the climate and environment response.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifei Dai ◽  
Long Cao ◽  
Bin Wang

Abstract. In this study, we evaluate the performance of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Earth System Model, version 3 (hereafter NESM v3) in simulating the marine biogeochemical cycle and CO2 uptake. Compared with observations, NESM v3 reproduces reasonably well the large-scale patterns of upper ocean biogeochemical fields including nutrients, alkalinity, dissolved inorganic, chlorophyll, and net primary production. The model also reasonably reproduces current-day oceanic CO2 uptake, the total CO2 uptake is 149 PgC from 1850 to 2016. In the 1ptCO2 experiment, the NESM v3 produced carbon-climate (γ=-7.9 PgC/K) and carbon-concentration sensitivity parameters (β=0.8 PgC/ppm) are comparable with CMIP5 model results. The nonlinearity of carbon uptake in the NESM v3 accounts for 10.3% of the total carbon uptake, which is within the range of CMIP5 model results (3.6%~10.6%). Some regional discrepancies between model simulations and observations are identified and the possible causes are investigated. In the upper ocean, the simulated biases in biogeochemical fields are mainly associated with the shortcoming in simulated ocean circulation. Weak upwelling in the Indian Ocean suppresses the nutrient entrainment to the upper ocean, therefore reducing the biological activities and resulting in underestimation of net primary production and chlorophyll concentration. In the Pacific and the Southern Ocean, high-nutrient and low-chlorophyll result from the strong iron limitation. Alkalinity shows high biases in high-latitude oceans due to the strong convective mixing. The major discrepancy in biogeochemical fields is seen in the deep Northern Pacific. The simulated high concentration of nutrients, alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon water is too deep due to the excessive deep ocean remineralization. Despite these model-observation discrepancies, it is expected that the NESM v3 can be employed as a useful modeling tool to investigate large scale interactions between the ocean carbon cycle and climate change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3119-3144
Author(s):  
Yifei Dai ◽  
Long Cao ◽  
Bin Wang

Abstract. In this study, we evaluate the performance of the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) Earth System Model version 3 (hereafter NESM v3) in simulating the marine biogeochemical cycle and carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake. Compared with observations, the NESM v3 reproduces the large-scale patterns of biogeochemical fields reasonably well in the upper ocean, including nutrients, alkalinity, dissolved inorganic, chlorophyll, and net primary production. Some discrepancies between model simulations and observations are identified and the possible causes are investigated. In the upper ocean, the simulated biases in biogeochemical fields are mainly associated with shortcomings in the simulated ocean circulation. Weak upwelling in the Indian Ocean suppresses the nutrient entrainment to the upper ocean, thus reducing biological activities and resulting in an underestimation of net primary production and the chlorophyll concentration. In the Pacific and the Southern Ocean, nutrients are overestimated as a result of strong iron limitation and excessive vertical mixing. Alkalinity is also overestimated in high-latitude oceans due to excessive convective mixing. The major discrepancy in biogeochemical fields is that the model overestimates nutrients, alkalinity, and dissolved inorganic carbon in the deep North Pacific, which is caused by the excessive deep ocean remineralization. The model reasonably reproduces present-day oceanic CO2 uptake. Model-simulated cumulative oceanic CO2 uptake is 149 PgC between 1850 and 2016, which compares well with data-based estimates of 150±20 PgC. In the 1 % yr−1 CO2 increase (1ptCO2) experiment, the diagnosed carbon-climate (γ=-7.9 PgC K−1) and carbon-concentration sensitivity parameters (β=0.88 PgC ppm−1) in the NESM v3 are comparable with those in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) models (β: 0.69 to 0.91 PgC ppm−1; γ: −2.4 to −12.1 PgC K−1). The nonlinear interaction between carbon-concentration and carbon-climate sensitivity in the NESM v3 accounts for 10.3 % of the total carbon uptake, which is within the range of CMIP5 model results (3.6 %–10.6 %). Overall, the NESM v3 can be employed as a useful modeling tool to investigate large-scale interactions between the ocean carbon cycle and climate change.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 626-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory C. Cleveland ◽  
Philip Taylor ◽  
K. Dana Chadwick ◽  
Kyla Dahlin ◽  
Christopher E. Doughty ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuncheng Guo ◽  
Mats Bentsen ◽  
Ingo Bethke ◽  
Mehmet Ilicak ◽  
Jerry Tjiputra ◽  
...  

Abstract. A new computationally efficient version of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) is presented. This new version (here termed NorESM1-F) runs about 2.5 times faster (e.g. 90 model years per day on current hardware) than the version that contributed to the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison project (CMIP5), i.e., NorESM1-M, and is therefore particularly suitable for multi-millennial paleoclimate and carbon cycle simulations or large ensemble simulations. The speedup is primarily a result of using a prescribed atmosphere aerosol chemistry and a tripolar ocean-sea ice horizontal grid configuration that allows an increase of the ocean-sea ice component time steps. Ocean biogeochemistry can be activated for fully coupled and semi-coupled carbon cycle applications. This paper describes the model and evaluates its performance using observations and NorESM1-M as benchmarks. The evaluation emphasises model stability, important large-scale features in the ocean and sea ice components, internal variability in the coupled system, and climate sensitivity. Simulation results from NorESM1-F in general agree well with observational estimates, and show evident improvements over NorESM1-M, for example, in the strength of the meridional overturning circulation and sea ice simulation, both important metrics in simulating past and future climates. Whereas NorESM1-M showed a slight global cool bias in the upper oceans, NorESM1-F exhibits a global warm bias. In general, however, NorESM1-F has more similarities than dissimilarities compared to NorESM1-M, and some biases and deficiencies known in NorESM1-M remain.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 343-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuncheng Guo ◽  
Mats Bentsen ◽  
Ingo Bethke ◽  
Mehmet Ilicak ◽  
Jerry Tjiputra ◽  
...  

Abstract. A new computationally efficient version of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) is presented. This new version (here termed NorESM1-F) runs about 2.5 times faster (e.g., 90 model years per day on current hardware) than the version that contributed to the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison project (CMIP5), i.e., NorESM1-M, and is therefore particularly suitable for multimillennial paleoclimate and carbon cycle simulations or large ensemble simulations. The speed-up is primarily a result of using a prescribed atmosphere aerosol chemistry and a tripolar ocean–sea ice horizontal grid configuration that allows an increase of the ocean–sea ice component time steps. Ocean biogeochemistry can be activated for fully coupled and semi-coupled carbon cycle applications. This paper describes the model and evaluates its performance using observations and NorESM1-M as benchmarks. The evaluation emphasizes model stability, important large-scale features in the ocean and sea ice components, internal variability in the coupled system, and climate sensitivity. Simulation results from NorESM1-F in general agree well with observational estimates and show evident improvements over NorESM1-M, for example, in the strength of the meridional overturning circulation and sea ice simulation, both important metrics in simulating past and future climates. Whereas NorESM1-M showed a slight global cool bias in the upper oceans, NorESM1-F exhibits a global warm bias. In general, however, NorESM1-F has more similarities than dissimilarities compared to NorESM1-M, and some biases and deficiencies known in NorESM1-M remain.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Tjiputra ◽  
K. Assmann ◽  
M. Bentsen ◽  
I. Bethke ◽  
O. H. Otterå ◽  
...  

Abstract. We developed a complex Earth system model by coupling terrestrial and oceanic carbon cycle components into the Bergen Climate Model. For this study, we have generated two model simulations (one with climate change inclusions and the other without) to study the large scale climate and carbon cycle variability as well as its feedback for the period 1850–2100. The simulations are performed based on historical and future IPCC CO2 emission scenarios. Globally, a pronounced positive climate-carbon cycle feedback is simulated by the terrestrial carbon cycle model, but smaller signals are shown by the oceanic counterpart. Over land, the regional climate-carbon cycle feedback is highlighted by increased soil respiration, which exceeds the enhanced production due to the atmospheric CO2 fertilization effect, in the equatorial and northern hemisphere mid-latitude regions. For the ocean, our analysis indicates that there are substantial temporal and spatial variations in climate impact on the air-sea CO2 fluxes. This implies feedback mechanisms act inhomogeneously in different ocean regions. In the North Atlantic subpolar gyre, the simulated future cooling of SST improves the CO2 gas solubility in seawater and, hence, reduces the strength of positive climate carbon cycle feedback in this region. In most ocean regions, the changes in the Revelle factor is dominated by changes in surface pCO2, and not by the warming of SST. Therefore, the solubility-associated positive feedback is more prominent than the buffer capacity feedback. In our climate change simulation, the retreat of Southern Ocean sea ice due to melting allows an additional ~20 Pg C uptake as compared to the simulation without climate change.


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