Simplified dynamic model on carbon exchange between atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract

Abstract Global warming is one of the serious global environmental problems and its major reason is considered to be the increase of atmospheric CO 2 concentration. In order that more precise and rational predictions of global warming and other climatic phenomena become possible by numerical simulations, the establishment of global material cycle models is essential, particularly for carbon. As the first step in constructing this carbon cycle model, a simplified dynamic model describing the carbon exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems was developed. The carbon storage in biomass and the net primary production of various vegetations in steady states and their transitional changes in non-steady states derived by the model calculation were in good agreement with those previously reported in the literature. The net ecosystem production was also estimated for five types of vegetations during a long growth period. Though further improvements of the model are still needed, we can conclude at this stage that the basic framework of the carbon cycle model on the terrestrial ecosystems, which may play a role as one of the sub-models of a global carbon cycle model, was established.