Incorporating soil nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in CAETÊ, a trait-based dynamic vegetation model

• Grant number: 19/08194-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: June 15, 2019
• End date: February 14, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Meteorology
• Principal Investigator: David Montenegro Lapola
• Grantee: João Paulo Darela Filho
• Supervisor: Anja Rammig
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Technical University of Munich, Weihenstephan (TUM), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/00005-3 - Modeling the role of nutrients for the stability of the Amazon Forest in light of climate change, BP.DD

Abstract

The development of trait-based Dynamic Vegetation Models (DVMs) has the potential to improve the representation of terrestrial vegetation dynamics in face of global change and lead to improvements in climatic projections coming from Earth System Models. Current trait-based vegetation models do not consider feedbacks from the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in carbon cycle projections. We propose here to implement nitrogen and phosphorus cycling processes in a Brazilian trait-based Dynamic Vegetation Model - CAETÊ (CArbon and Ecosystem functional Trait Evaluation model). The development will be based on nutrient cycling implementations in other established Dynamic Vegetation Models. Additionally, this proposal aims at addressing the uncertainty about the spatial patterns of phosphorus forms in the soils of Amazonia. The most recent maps do not represent the Amazonian east-west gradients in soil quality and phosphorus prevalent forms. We propose here to refine this analysis by applying the existing mapping method to new data compiled since the publication of the first map and refine the analysis in spatial resolution. Observational data will be available through researchers involved in this project and from new publications and data available in scientific literature and databases. This second task can generate new insights that will benefit the development of the phosphorus cycling in CAETÊ. (AU)