A simple global land surface model for biogeochemical studies

Abstract

A simple and global model of terrestrial biogeochemistry is presented here. The model accounts for the most important fluxes of carbon and water at the land surface, such as evapotranspiration, runoff and Net Primary Productivity. Its main feature is modularity, meaning that the different parts of the model can be exchanged. At the moment, for instance, the model consists of a vegetation and a soil model, which are able to run independently and can also be connected to other models. The model is fast and it is able to reproduce a range of observational datasets with good accuracy. It can subsequently be used as a predictive tool in terrestrial biogeochemistry.