Evaluating the Community Land Model (CLM4.5) at a coniferous forest site in northwestern United States using flux and carbon-isotope measurements

Duarte, Henrique F.; Raczka, Brett M.; Ricciuto, Daniel M.; Lin, John C.; Koven, Charles D.; Thornton, Peter E.; Bowling, David R.; Lai, Chun-Ta; Bible, Kenneth J.; Ehleringer, James R.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-4315-2017

Articles | Volume 14, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-4315-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-4315-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 18

Research article

|

28 Sep 2017

Research article |

| 28 Sep 2017

Evaluating the Community Land Model (CLM4.5) at a coniferous forest site in northwestern United States using flux and carbon-isotope measurements

Henrique F. Duarte, Brett M. Raczka, Daniel M. Ricciuto, John C. Lin, Charles D. Koven, Peter E. Thornton, David R. Bowling, Chun-Ta Lai, Kenneth J. Bible, and James R. Ehleringer

Data sets

Technical description of version~4.5 of the Community Land Model (CLM) K. W. Oleson, D. M. Lawrence, G. B. Bonan, B. Drewniak, M. Huang, C. D. Koven, S. Levis, F. Li, W. J. Riley, Z. M. Subin, S. C. Swenson, P. E. Thornton, A. Bozbiyik, R. Fisher, C. L. Heald, E. Kluzek, J.-F. Lamarque, P. J. Lawrence, L. R. Leung, W. Lipscomb, S. Muszala, D. M. Ricciuto, W. Sacks, Y. Sun, J. Tang, and Z.-L. Yang http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/cesm1.2/clm/CLM45_Tech_Note.pdf

AmeriFlux US-Wrc Wind River Crane Site S. Wharton https://doi.org/10.17190/AMF/1246114

Short summary

We evaluate the Community Land Model (CLM4.5) against observations at an old-growth coniferous forest site that is subjected to water stress each summer. We found that, after calibration, CLM was able to reasonably simulate the observed fluxes of energy and carbon, carbon stocks, carbon isotope ratios, and ecosystem response to water stress. This study demonstrates that carbon isotopes can expose structural weaknesses in CLM and provide a key constraint that may guide future model development.