Identification

Title

The impact of nitrogen and phosphorous limitation on the estimated terrestrial carbon balance and warming of land use change over the last 156 yr

Abstract

We examine the impact of land use and land cover change (LULCC) over the period from 1850 to 2005 using an Earth system model that incorporates nitrogen and phosphorous limitation on the terrestrial carbon cycle. We compare the estimated CO₂ emissions and warming from land use change in a carbon-only version of the model with those from simulations, including nitrogen and phosphorous limitation. If we omit nutrients, our results suggest LULCC cools on the global average by about 0.1 °C. Including nutrients reduces this cooling to ∼ 0.05 °C. Our results also suggest LULCC has a major impact on total land carbon over the period 1850–2005. In carbon-only simulations, the inclusion of LULCC decreases the total additional land carbon stored in 2005 from around 210 Pg C to 85 Pg C. Including nitrogen and phosphorous limitation also decreases the scale of the terrestrial carbon sink to 80 Pg C. Shown as corresponding fluxes, adding LULCC on top of the nutrient-limited simulations changes the sign of the terrestrial carbon flux from a sink to a source (12 Pg C). The CO₂ emission from LULCC from 1850 to 2005 is estimated to be 130 Pg C for carbon only simulation, or 97 Pg C if nutrient limitation is accounted for in our model. The difference between these two estimates of CO₂ emissions from LULCC largely results from the weaker response of photosynthesis to increased CO₂ and smaller carbon pool sizes, and therefore lower carbon loss from plant and wood product carbon pools under nutrient limitation. We suggest that nutrient limitation should be accounted for in simulating the effects of LULCC on the past climate and on the past and future carbon budget.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7m046cn

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

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South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2013-09-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact