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Paul Miller. Photo.

Paul Miller

Senior lecturer

Paul Miller. Photo.

Site-level model intercomparison of high latitude and high altitude soil thermal dynamics in tundra and barren landscapes

Author

  • A. Ekici
  • S. Chadburn
  • Nitin Chaudhary
  • L. H. Hajdu
  • A. Marmy
  • S. Peng
  • J. Boike
  • E. Burke
  • A. D. Friend
  • C. Hauck
  • G. Krinner
  • M. Langer
  • Paul Miller
  • C. Beer
Show all

Summary, in English

Modeling soil thermal dynamics at high latitudes and altitudes requires representations of physical processes such as snow insulation, soil freezing and thawing and subsurface conditions like soil water/ice content and soil texture. We have compared six different land models: JSBACH, ORCHIDEE, JULES, COUP, HYBRID8 and LPJ-GUESS, at four different sites with distinct cold region landscape types, to identify the importance of physical processes in capturing observed temperature dynamics in soils. The sites include alpine, high Arctic, wet polygonal tundra and non-permafrost Arctic, thus showing how a range of models can represent distinct soil temperature regimes. For all sites, snow insulation is of major importance for estimating topsoil conditions. However, soil physics is essential for the subsoil temperature dynamics and thus the active layer thicknesses. This analysis shows that land models need more realistic surface processes, such as detailed snow dynamics and moss cover with changing thickness and wetness, along with better representations of subsoil thermal dynamics.

Department/s

  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

1343-1361

Publication/Series

The Cryosphere

Volume

9

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Copernicus GmbH

Topic

  • Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1994-0424