BG1.9 New advances in model development of biospheric processes

Convener: Carlos Sierra  | Co-Conveners: Sandra Arndt , Victor Brovkin

Orals  / Thu, 21 Apr, 10:30–12:00  / Room M1 Posters  / Attendance Thu, 21 Apr, 15:30–17:00  / Foyer M

To accurately predict future changes in climate and possible feedbacks with the biosphere, it is necessary to improve the representation of a variety of components of current Earth System Models (ESMs). In particular, there is currently a large effort to improve representations of different processes such as the biogeochemistry of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, or the physical processes that directly influence them. Over the past years, continuous progress has been achieved in model development by including new mechanisms or improving existing representations, which are informed by the increasing availability of observations and the resulting advancement of our understanding. Progress has been made at different scales, from microbial processes occurring at fine levels of abstraction to large-scale processes operating at larger levels.
This session offers the opportunity to showcase new advances in different areas of biospheric model development such as: 1) incorporation of new processes, or the improvement of older/simplistic schemes; 2) inter-comparisons of numerical output, mathematical representations, or algorithms; 3) modeling experiments exploring the sensitivity of different processes or the outcome of different scenarios in model input. We particularly invite contributions that address new developments of large-scale biospheric models; e.g. the representation of the biological C pump in the ocean, or the permafrost-climate feedback, among many other Earth system processes and feedbacks. Improvements on other levels of abstraction are also welcome; e.g. at cellular or organismic scales that can improve representation of processes in ESMs.