Future challenges of representing land-processes in studies on land-atmosphere interactions

Arneth, A.; Mercado, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4069-0838; Kattge, J.; Booth, B.B.B.. 2012 Future challenges of representing land-processes in studies on land-atmosphere interactions. Biogeosciences, 9 (9). 3587-3599. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-3587-2012

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-3587-2012

Abstract/Summary

Over recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that climate change and air pollution need to be considered jointly for improved attribution and projections of human-caused changes in the Earth system. Exchange processes at the land surface come into play in this context, because many compounds that either act as greenhouse gases, as pollutant precursors, or both, have not only anthropogenic but also terrestrial sources and sinks. And since the fluxes of multiple gases and particulate matter between the terrestrial biota and the atmosphere are directly or indirectly coupled to vegetation and soil carbon, nutrient and water balances, quantification of their geographic patterns or changes over time requires due consideration of the underlying biological processes. In this review we highlight a number of critical aspects and recent progress in this respect, identifying in particular a number of areas where studies have shown that accounting for ecological process understanding can alter global model projections of land-atmosphere interactions substantially. Specifically, this concerns the improved quantification of uncertainties and dynamic system responses, including acclimation, and the incorporation of exchange processes that so far have been missing from global models even though they are proposed to be of relevance for our understanding of terrestrial biota-climate feedbacks. Progress has also been made regarding studies on the impacts of land use/land cover change on climate change, but the absence of a mechanistically based representation of human responseprocesses in ecosystem models that are coupled to climate models limits our ability to analyse how climate change or air pollution in turn might affect human land use. A more integrated perspective is necessary and should become an active area of research that bridges the socio-economic and biophysical communities.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-3587-2012
Programmes:	CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biogeochemistry
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Reynard
ISSN:	1726-4170
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Date made live:	17 Jan 2013 12:34 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20932

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-3587-2012

Programmes:

CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biogeochemistry

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Reynard

ISSN:

1726-4170

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Date made live:

17 Jan 2013 12:34 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20932