Collaborative Research: ETBC--The Cycling of Nitrogen in an Earth System Model: Constraints and Implications for Climate Change

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The overarching goals of this project are: 1) to constrain the global budget of reactive nitrogen (Nr) through a combination of numerical simulations, data synthesis and analysis; and 2) to produce initial estimates of the overall interaction between reactive nitrogen cycling and climate. The nitrogen cycle is a key regulator of the Earth's climate system, linking terrestrial, marine, photochemical, and industrial processes, and modulating the carbon cycle. Over the last century and a half, expansion and intensification of agriculture and fossil fuel combustion have led to a more than doubling of Nr emissions to the atmosphere with profound impacts on the earth system. A closed global Nr cycle will be simulated within the CCSM (Community Climate System Model) by tracking Nr across three model domains: (1) atmosphere, (2) land, including native and agroecosystems, and (3) fresh and oceanic waters. While the basis for much of this work has already been developed within the CCSM, the nitrogen cycle has not been coupled across the different model domains. In the fully coupled system, each model domain will simulate the transport and production of Nr within its domain and the chemistry and loss of Nr from its domain, with the requirement that the nitrogen fluxes between the domains be self-consistent. This mass-balanced approach will avoid the untracked losses of Nr that occur when the nitrogen cycle is modeled in isolation within a single domain. Moreover, it will consider the diverse and opposing impacts of Nr on terrestrial carbon sinks and on the radiatively important species nitrous oxide, ozone, methane and aerosol ammonium sulfate. It is hypothesized that the overall effect of a changing Nr cycle on these four atmospheric species will lead to a warming sufficient to offset the cooling associated with increased Nr availability and increased terrestrial carbon uptake.The synthesized datasets for evaluating the nitrogen cycle in Earth System Models, the coupled nitrogen-carbon-climate model developed here, and the simulations with the CCSM will be made broadly available to university and national laboratory communities and will contribute to the upcoming IPCC 5th Assessment. Most of the principal investigators in this project are actively engaged in graduate student education and training, and most participate in undergraduate activities as well. The research will support four additional graduate students and one postdoctoral associate as well as a number of undergraduates. All will become involved in the research activities both at their respective local institutions, as well as across all institutions and disciplines involved in the project.