Carbon-nitrogen interactions in idealized simulations with JSBACH (version 3.10)

Recent advances in the representation of soil carbon decomposition (Goll et al., 2015) and carbon-nitrogen interactions (Parida, 2011; Goll et al., 2012) implemented previously into separate versions of the land surface scheme JSBACH are here combined in a single version which is set to be used in the upcoming 6th phase of coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6) (Eyring et al., 2016). Here we demonstrate that the new version of JSBACH is able to reproduce the spatial variability in the reactive nitrogen loss pathways as derived from a compilation of δ15N data (r=.63, RMSE=.26, Taylor score=.81). The inclusion of carbon-nitrogen interactions leads to a moderate reduction (−10 %) of the carbon-concentration feedback (βL) and has a negligible effect on the sensitivity of the land carbon cycle to warming (γL) compared to the same version of the model without carbon-nitrogen interactions in idealized simulations (1 % increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide per yr). In line with evidence from elevated carbon dioxide manipulation experiments (Shi et al., 2015; Liang et al., 2016), pronounced nitrogen scarcity is alleviated by (1) the accumulation of nitrogen due to enhanced nitrogen inputs by biological nitrogen fixation and reduced losses by leaching and volatilization as well as the (2) enhanced turnover of organic nitrogen. The strengths of the land carbon feedbacks of the recent version of JSBACH, with βL=0.61 Pg ppm−1 and γL=−27.5 Pg °C−1, are 34 % and 53 % less than the averages of CMIP5 models (Arora et al., 2013), although the CMIP5 version of JSBACH simulated βL and γL which are 59 % and 42 % higher than multi-model average. These changes are primarily due to the new decomposition model, stressing the importance of getting the basics right (here: the decomposition of soil carbon) before increasing the complexity of the model (here: carbon-nitrogen interactions).