A simple parameterization of nitrogen limitation on primary productivity for global vegetation models

Abstract. Nitrogen limitation of ecosystem productivity is ubiquitous, and it is thought that it has and will have a significant impact on net ecosystem productivity, and thus carbon sequestration, in the context of ongoing future increase of atmospheric CO₂ concentration and climate change. However, many vegetation models do not represent nitrogen limitation, and might thus overestimate future terrestrial C sequestration. This work presents a simple parameterization of nitrogen limitation that can be easily implemented in vegetation models which do not yet include a complete nitrogen cycle. This parameterization is based on the ratio between heterotrophic respiration (considered a "proxy" of net mineralization rate) and net primary productivity of the ecosystem (considered a "proxy" of nitrogen demand). It is implemented in a global vegetation model and tested against site experiments of CO₂ fertilization and soil warming. Furthermore, global simulations of past and future CO₂ fertilization are carried out and compared to other model results and available estimates of global C sequestration. It is shown that when N limitation is taken into account using the simple parameterization presented here, the model reproduces fairly realistically the carbon dynamics observed under CO₂ fertilization and soil warming.