Modeling the effect of explicit vs implicit representaton of grazing on ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycling in response to elevated carbon dioxide and warming in arctic tussock tundra, Alaska - Dataset A

Abstract: 

We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how explicitly representing grazers versus having grazer effects implicitly aggregated in with other biogeochemical processes in the model alters predicted responses to elevated carbon dioxide and warming. The aggregated approach can affect model predictions because grazer-mediated processes can respond differently to changes in climate from the processes with which they are typically aggregated. We use small-mammal grazers in arctic tundra as an example and find that the typical three-to-four-year cycling frequency is too fast for the effects of cycle peaks and troughs to be fully manifested in the ecosystem biogeochemistry. We conclude that implicitly aggregating the effects of small-mammal grazers with other processes results in an underestimation of ecosystem response to climate change relative to estimations in which the grazer effects are explicitly represented. The magnitude of this underestimation increases with grazer density. We therefore recommend that grazing effects be incorporated explicitly when applying models of ecosystem response to global change.

Project Keywords: 

Data set ID: 

20130

EML revision ID: 

3
Published on EDI/LTER Data Portal

Citation: 

Rastetter, E., Griffin, K., Gough, L., Mclaren, J., Boelman, N. 2021. Modeling the effect of explicit vs implicit representaton of grazing on ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycling in response to elevated carbon dioxide and warming in arctic tussock tundra, Alaska - Dataset A Environmental Data Initiative. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/e8f2890db0a7a64a76580cadb47b472c
People

Publication Date: 

2021

Collection Status: 

Ended

Version Changes: 

Final dataset; 7/1/2021: Dataset published. BK;
Version 3: Update keywords. Remove reference to data set C. Add code to replicate to the Arctic Data Center BK 17Feb22

Sites sampled.

Full Metadata and data files (either comma delimited (csv) or Excel) - Environmental Data Initiative repository.

Use of the data requires acceptance of the data use policy --> Arctic LTER Data Use Policy