TY - JOUR
T1 - Observing and Simulating Spatial Variations of Forest Carbon Stocks in Complex Terrain
AU - Smeglin, Yuting H.
AU - Davis, Kenneth J.
AU - Shi, Yuning
AU - Eissenstat, David M.
AU - Kaye, Jason P.
AU - Kaye, Margot W.
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support was provided by National Science Foundation Grant EAR–0725019 (C. Duffy), EAR–1239285 (S. Brantley), and EAR–1331726 (S. Brantley) for the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory and by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological & Environmental Research, under Award DE-SC0012003. Logistical support and/or data were provided by the NSF-supported Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory. This research was conducted in Penn State's Stone Valley Forest, which is funded by the Penn State College of Agriculture Sciences, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management and managed by the staff of the Forestlands Management Office. Model input and output data for this study are available at http://www.czo.psu.edu/data_time_series.html under Level 4-Knowledge Products: (1) watershed average net ecosystem productivity (NEP) observed by flux tower and simulated by Biome-BGC and (2) carbon stocks simulated, Biome-BGC (carbon pools). The model is available online (https://github.com/heyuting/BiomeBGC-SSHCZO).
Publisher Copyright:
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - The terrestrial carbon (C) cycle remains the least constrained component in the global C cycle, partly due to the difficulty of quantifying C sources and sinks in complex terrain. In this paper, we used observations at the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory and a biogeochemistry model, Biome-BGC, to study the spatial distribution of C stocks and fluxes in a first-order watershed. The model simulated the average C pools and fluxes in the watershed after constraining three model parameters with observations. The model was able to generate the observed spatial patterns of C pools in the watershed, with higher biomass and soil C in the valley and lower values on the ridgetop, though the model underestimated the ridgetop to valley differences. We examined the simulated effect of four environmental factors, soil moisture, soil temperature, nitrogen (N) availability and solar radiation, on the spatial distribution of C pools. Among these factors, soil water and N availability coupled together dominate the spatial distribution of aboveground biomass. Soil water was the most important factor controlling soil C. These results are highly sensitive to van Genuchten parameters, which describe the soil water retention curve. This study highlights the importance of the hydrologic system in describing within-watershed structure in terrestrial C stocks.
AB - The terrestrial carbon (C) cycle remains the least constrained component in the global C cycle, partly due to the difficulty of quantifying C sources and sinks in complex terrain. In this paper, we used observations at the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory and a biogeochemistry model, Biome-BGC, to study the spatial distribution of C stocks and fluxes in a first-order watershed. The model simulated the average C pools and fluxes in the watershed after constraining three model parameters with observations. The model was able to generate the observed spatial patterns of C pools in the watershed, with higher biomass and soil C in the valley and lower values on the ridgetop, though the model underestimated the ridgetop to valley differences. We examined the simulated effect of four environmental factors, soil moisture, soil temperature, nitrogen (N) availability and solar radiation, on the spatial distribution of C pools. Among these factors, soil water and N availability coupled together dominate the spatial distribution of aboveground biomass. Soil water was the most important factor controlling soil C. These results are highly sensitive to van Genuchten parameters, which describe the soil water retention curve. This study highlights the importance of the hydrologic system in describing within-watershed structure in terrestrial C stocks.
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U2 - 10.1029/2019JG005160
DO - 10.1029/2019JG005160
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081025525
VL - 125
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
SN - 2169-8953
IS - 1
M1 - e2019JG005160
ER -