Identification

Title

Nitrogen availability reduces CMIP5 projections of Twenty-First-Century land carbon uptake

Abstract

Coupled carbon cycle--climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, phase 5 (CMIP5), Earth system model ensemble simulate the effects of changes in anthropogenic fossil-fuel emissions and ensuing climatic changes on the global carbon (C) balance but largely ignore the consequences of widespread terrestrial nitrogen (N) limitation. Based on plausible ranges of terrestrial C:N stoichiometry, this study investigates whether the terrestrial C sequestration projections of nine CMIP5 models for four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) are consistent with estimates of N supply from increased biological fixation, atmospheric deposition, and reduced ecosystem N losses. Discrepancies between the timing and places of N demand and supply indicated increases in terrestrial N implicit to the projections of all nine CMIP5 models under all scenarios that are larger than the estimated N supply. Omitting N constraints leads to an overestimation of land C sequestration in these models between the years 1860 and 2100 by between 97 Pg C (69-252 Pg C; RCP 2.6) and 150 Pg C (57-323 Pg C; RCP 8.5), with a large spread across models. The CMIP5 models overestimated the average 2006–2100 fossil-fuel emissions required to keep atmospheric CO2 levels on the trajectories described in the RCP scenarios by between 0.6 Pg C yr⁻¹ (0.4-2.2 Pg C yr⁻¹; RCP 2.6) and 1.2 Pg C yr⁻¹ (0.5–3.3 Pg C yr⁻¹; RCP 8.5). If unabated, reduced land C sequestration would enhance CO₂ accumulation in the ocean and atmosphere, increasing atmospheric CO₂ burden by 26 ppm (16-88 ppm; RCP 2.6) to 61 ppm (29-147 ppm; RCP 8.5) by the year 2100.

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document

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http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7bc40qz

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eng

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geoscientificInformation

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title

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publication

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2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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publication

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2015-03-15T00:00:00Z

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Copyright 2015 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

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OpenSky Support

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UCAR/NCAR - Library

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PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

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opensky@ucar.edu

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http://opensky.ucar.edu/

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