Jennifer Adam, Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Soil Seminar Series January 31, 2011 E ARTH S YSTEM M ODELING : A F RAMEWORK FOR I NTERDISCIPLINARY R ESEARCH
O UTLINE What is an “Earth System Model”? A new Earth System Model: BioEarth How can BioEarth serve as a framework for interdisciplinary research?
W HAT IS AN E ARTH S YSTEM M ODEL ?
W HAT IS NOT AN E ARTH S YSTEM MODEL ? A NSWER : “S TAND -A LONE ” M ODELS Represents a single or limited number of components of the earth system Can be very sophisticated (and computationally demanding!) for this single component Example: A land surface hydrology model
W HAT IS AN E ARTH S YSTEM MODEL ? Represents multiple components of the earth system Example: Community Earth System Model (CESM) Developed at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and greater community Global scale Coupler Atmosphere Ocean Land Land & Sea Ice
W HEN TO USE S TAND -A LONE VERSUS E ARTH S YSTEM M ODELS Stand-Alone Models: Only needing to understand 1-way impacts When “forcing” the model with observed data is better than “forcing” the model with outputs from another model (historical simulations) Earth System Models: To explore 2-way effects or feedbacks between components of the earth system To explore projected changes in a system when wanting to capture feedback effects, e.g., due to climate change (future simulations)
D ECIDING ON C OMPONENTS OF THE E ARTH S YSTEM M ODEL Domain of interest geographic location and extent scale Question of interest Current understanding of most important processes
A NEW E ARTH S YSTEM M ODEL
B IO E ARTH VERSUS CESM BioEarthCESM Regional scale: Pacific Northwest (uses a GCM for boundary conditions) Global Scale (no boundary problems) Finer Spatial ResolutionCoarser Spatial Resolution No Ocean, sea ice, or glaciersHas ocean, sea ice, glaciers Some components more sophisticatedSome components necessarily less sophisticated *More explicit handling of human activities: cropping systems (irrigation, tillage, fertilization), forest management, reservoir operations *Integrated economic modeling; can be used for policy scenario investigation *Model outputs more directly relevant for local scale planning/decision making/informing policy Less explicit handling of human activities
M ODELING D OMAIN : T HE P ACIFIC N ORTHWEST
I NCEPTION OF B IO E ARTH A Vision Envisioned by faculty at WSU Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (LAR) Projects used for leveraging AIRPACT: near-term air quality forecasting for Pacific Northwest WA Ecology project on Columbia River Basin long- term water demand forecasting NSF IGERT: Nitrogen Systems: Policy-oriented Integrated Research and Education (NSPIRE)
T HE T EAM 6 Institutions with WSU as Lead 18 Faculty 3 Postdoctoral Scholars 10 PhD Students 5 Working Groups
C ONTRIBUTING F ACULTY Modeling TeamEarth System Component Jennifer Adam, WSUTerrestrial/Aquatic Serena Chung, WSUAtmospheric Alex Guenther, NCARAtmospheric/Terrestrial John Harrison, WSUTerrestrial/Aquatic Brian Lamb, WSUAtmospheric Ruby Leung, PNNLAtmospheric/Terrestrial Claudio Stockle, WSUTerrestrial Christina Tague, UCSBTerrestrial/Aquatic Joe Vaughan, WSUAtmospheric
C ONTRIBUTING F ACULTY Economics Team Michael Brady, WSU Yong Chen, OSU Jon Yoder, WSU Cyberinfrastructure Team Ananth Kalyanaraman, WSU Joe Vaughan, WSU Outreach/Education Team Chad Kruger, WSU Fok Leung, WSU Andy Perleberg, WSU Jennie Stephens, Clark U. Ecology Team Dave Evans, WSU John Harrison, WSU Christina Tague, UCSB
G OAL AND O BJECTIVES Overarching Goal: To improve the understanding of regional and decadal-scale C:N:H 2 O interactions in context of global change to better inform decision makers involved in natural and agricultural resource management. Specific Objectives: 1. Air to Land Linkage: To investigate the role that atmospheric processes play in land surface C:N:H 2 O cycles. 2. Coupled Air/Land: To explore how ecosystem changes in the PNW affect land/atmosphere interactions. 3. Coupled Air/Land/Human: To examine how potential policy changes might affect the interactions between C:N:H 2 O cycles and regional-scale climate. 4. Communication: To explore how to best communicate the model results to resource managers and policy makers.
Atmosphere
G LOBAL C LIMATE M ODEL (GCM): CCSM4 The General Circulation Model used in CESM Community Climate System Model (CCSM) has four separate models: Atmosphere general circulation model (AGCM) Ocean general circulation model (OGCM) Land surface model (soil moisture, vegetation roles, snow, …) Sea ice model
Nested Simulations for the Pacific Northwest Outer domain: 36-km resolution 12-km resolution 4-km resolution Hourly Meteorology Output: Precipitation, Temperature, Relative Humidity,… Global Climate Model: Precipitation, Temperature, Windspeed, Radiation, … Regional Meteorology: WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting)
R EGIONAL A TMOSPHERIC C HEMISTRY : CMAQ CMAQ: Community Multi-Scale Air Quality Model Compatible with WRF, nested model domains Solution to the pollutant conservation equation chemical species, 100’s of reactions Cloud chemistry Detailed wet/dry deposition scheme
Terrestrial
Regional to Global Scales: 1/16° to 2 ° resolution Sub-grid variability (statistically) 1 to 24 hourly time step Spatially distributed Closes the water and energy budgets Sub-models: Snow Frozen ground/permafrost Lakes/wetlands UW/Princeton Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) Model L ARGE -S CALE H YDROLOGY : VIC (V ARIABLE I NFILTRATION C APACITY M ODEL )
Developed by Claudio Stöckle at WSU Crop development and growth (unstressed or stressed) Simulation of growth under increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration Water and nitrogen balance Salinity Residue fate Soil erosion by water Carbon sequestration Greenhouse gas emissions (CO 2 and N 2 O) Cropping Systems: CropSyst
E COHYDROLOGY :RHESS YS (R EGIONAL H YDRO -E COLOGIC S IMULATION S YSTEM ) Slide courtesy of Christina Tague
T ERRESTRIAL M ODEL I NTEGRATION : I NTEGRATING D IFFERENT S CALES Crop 1 VIC grid cell (~ 40 km 2 ) Crop 2 Natural Vegetation CropSyst is invoked RHESSys is invoked
B IOGENIC E MISSIONS : MEGAN M ODEL OF E MISSIONS OF G ASES AND A EROSOLS FROM N ATURE Developed by Alex Guenther What emissions are needed for chemical transport model (CMAQ)? Point, area, mobile, fire, terrestrial biosphere = biogenic 134 emitted chemical species Isoprene Monoterpenes Oxygenated compounds Sesquiterpenes Nitrogen oxide
Aquatic
R IVER R OUTING AND R ESERVOIRS VIC Hydrology Model Reservoir Model River Routing Model
Large river basins, annual scale, inputs at 0.5 degrees Multi-element (C,N,P,Si); Multi-form (dissolved, particulate, organic, inorganic) Estimates contributions of various nutrient inputs to export Slide borrowed from Kara Goodwin G LOBAL N UTRIENT E XPORT FROM WATERSHEDS (NEWS) Dissolved Inorganic N (DIN) = nitrate + nitrite + ammonia
Economics
E CONOMICS : CREM Columbia River Basin Economic Model (CREM) Human decision making under changes in Resources (land, water, fertilizer) Political environment Agricultural management practices Crop selection, irrigation, fertilization Natural resources management decisions
M ODELING D OMAIN : T HE P ACIFIC N ORTHWEST
O UTREACH AND C OMMUNICATIONS R ESEARCH WSU Extension will hold two meetings per year (for four years) with stakeholders in Agriculture Forestry Tribes Communications research question: How does regular interaction between BioEarth developers and land-use stakeholders influence the perceived relevance and perceived utility of a model to decision-making?
H OW CAN B IO E ARTH SERVE AS A FRAMEWORK FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ?
W HY IS I NTERDISCIPLINARY R ESEARCH N EEDED IN THE E ARTH S CIENCES ? Human knowledge doubles every X years (X depends on discipline, but is somewhere between 2 and 21 years) True “Renaissance Men” no longer exist; We must pool our expertise to solve problems that span the breadth of human knowledge “Stationarity is Dead” (Milly et al., Science, 2008) We are entering a new regime where we can no longer rely on relationships developed from historical data Extrapolation is not valid; New relationships must be explored The New Frontier in modeling of Earth processes Many “Stand Alone” models have reached a high level of sophistication; The New Frontier is in integrating these models This needs a team of people who are experts in each of the component models
S OME R OADBLOCKS TO I NTERDISCIPLINARY R ESEARCH Physical location How to overcome: Cyberinfrastructure (videoconferencing; document, data, and code sharing) University politics How to overcome: Fair distribution of credit Jargon: terminology specific to a discipline (loosely expanded to also include discipline-specific concepts or ideas) How to overcome? This may be the biggest challenge.
B IO E ARTH : A VENUES OF C OLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION Between experimentalists and modelers in a discipline Commonality: jargon of specific scientific discipline Between modelers (multiple disciplines) Commonality: computer jargon, modeling jargon Between biophysical, computer, and social scientists Commonality: jargon related to any common data inputs, research/academic jargon in general Between scientists and decision makers Commonality: jargon related to scientific information needed for decision making Between scientists and land managers (land owners, farmers, forest managers, etc…) Commonality: jargon related to land attributes More Commonality Less Commonality
H OW CAN WE SUCCESSFULLY COMMUNICATE ? Focusing on our commonality in jargon to Learn something of each other’s jargon Learn what the other person does NOT know of your jargon Develop a jargon common ground Learn how to educate newcomers to this jargon common ground What not to do Neglect to take the time to educate a newcomer to the jargon common ground Emphasize model output above the jargon common ground Underestimate the intellectual capabilities of those outside of academia
S UMMARY An Earth System Model is important for exploring 2- way linkages and feedbacks between earth system components. BioEarth is a regional Earth System Model that explicitly accounts human activities as well as linkages between earth system and economic processes. A roadblock to interdisciplinary research is discipline-specific jargon. BioEarth can be used as a framework for developing a common ground jargon that can be used not only for research but also for communicating research results to stakeholders.
N EED F URTHER I NFORMATION ? Please contact me: Jennifer Adam: Or visit our webpage: (currently in development)
B IO E ARTH
A PPROACH AND R ATIONALE Integrate or link existing sophisticated “stand alone” models that are in continuous development Atmosphere: meteorology, atmospheric chemistry Terrestrial: hydrology, soil/plant biogeochemistry in cropped and natural systems, biogenic emissions Aquatic: river routing, reservoir modeling, nutrient export Economics As the “stand alone” components continue to improve by their developers, the BioEarth will also continue to develop
Model Coupling Terminology Model Linking One-way Two-way Model Partial Integration Model Full Integration
C AND N – RELEVANT PROCESSES IN RHESS YS Slide courtesy of Christina Tague
Physical System of Dams and Reservoirs Reservoir Operating Policies Reservoir Storage Regulated Streamflow Flood Control Energy Production Irrigation Consumption Streamflow Augmentation VIC Streamflow Time Series T HE R ESERVOIR M ODEL (C OL S IM ) Slide courtesy of Alan Hamlet
T – Transpiration I P – Interception capacity I – Infiltration Q – Runoff Q 01 – Drainage from 0 to 1 Q 02 – Drainage from 0 to 2 Q b – Baseflow ET 0 – Penman Monteith Pot. Evap. W 1 – water content in 1 W 2 - water content in 2 QbQb Q 12 T IPIP updated Soil moisture Redistribute I, W 1 and W 2 to CropSyst layers Q Q 01 ET 0, I, W 1, W 2 T, I P I CropSyst VIC VIC – C ROP S YST INTEGRATION Terrestrial
Point Sewage Non-point Natural N fixation Atmospheric N dep. Fertilizer N-fixation by crops Manure Crop export (-) Runoff Sewage treatment DIN in surface waters DIN exported from basin Retention in reservoirs In-stream removal Consumptive use Terrestrial retention NEWS2-DIN Nitrogen Inputs Slide borrowed from Kara Goodwin