Articles | Volume 14, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5863-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5863-2021
Review and perspective paper
 | 
27 Sep 2021
Review and perspective paper |  | 27 Sep 2021

Validation of terrestrial biogeochemistry in CMIP6 Earth system models: a review

Lynsay Spafford and Andrew H. MacDougall

Related authors

A normalised framework for the Zero Emissions Commitment
Richard G. Williams, Philip Goodwin, Paulo Ceppi, Chris D. Jones, and Andrew MacDougall
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-800,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-800, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
Short summary
flat10MIP: An emissions-driven experiment to diagnose the climate response to positive, zero, and negative CO2 emissions
Benjamin Mark Sanderson, Victor Brovkin, Rosie Fisher, David Hohn, Tatiana Ilyina, Chris Jones, Torben Koenigk, Charles Koven, Hongmei Li, David Lawrence, Peter Lawrence, Spencer Liddicoat, Andrew Macdougall, Nadine Mengis, Zebedee Nicholls, Eleanor O'Rourke, Anastasia Romanou, Marit Sandstad, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Seferian, Lori Sentman, Isla Simpson, Chris Smith, Norman Steinert, Abigail Swann, Jerry Tjiputra, and Tilo Ziehn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3356,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3356, 2024
Short summary
Effect of terrestrial nutrient limitation on the estimation of the remaining carbon budget
Makcim L. De Sisto and Andrew H. MacDougall
Biogeosciences, 21, 4853–4873, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4853-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4853-2024, 2024
Short summary
Modelling the terrestrial nitrogen and phosphorus cycle in the UVic ESCM
Makcim L. De Sisto, Andrew H. MacDougall, Nadine Mengis, and Sophia Antoniello
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4113–4136, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4113-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4113-2023, 2023
Short summary
Continental heat storage: contributions from the ground, inland waters, and permafrost thawing
Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Hugo Beltrami, Almudena García-García, Gerhard Krinner, Moritz Langer, Andrew H. MacDougall, Jan Nitzbon, Jian Peng, Karina von Schuckmann, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Wim Thiery, Inne Vanderkelen, and Tonghua Wu
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 609–627, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-609-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-609-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Climate and Earth system modeling
From weather data to river runoff: using spatiotemporal convolutional networks for discharge forecasting
Florian Börgel, Sven Karsten, Karoline Rummel, and Ulf Gräwe
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 2005–2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2005-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2005-2025, 2025
Short summary
A Fortran–Python interface for integrating machine learning parameterization into earth system models
Tao Zhang, Cyril Morcrette, Meng Zhang, Wuyin Lin, Shaocheng Xie, Ye Liu, Kwinten Van Weverberg, and Joana Rodrigues
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1917–1928, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1917-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1917-2025, 2025
Short summary
A rapid-application emissions-to-impacts tool for scenario assessment: Probabilistic Regional Impacts from Model patterns and Emissions (PRIME)
Camilla Mathison, Eleanor J. Burke, Gregory Munday, Chris D. Jones, Chris J. Smith, Norman J. Steinert, Andy J. Wiltshire, Chris Huntingford, Eszter Kovacs, Laila K. Gohar, Rebecca M. Varney, and Douglas McNeall
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1785–1808, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1785-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1785-2025, 2025
Short summary
The DOE E3SM version 2.1: overview and assessment of the impacts of parameterized ocean submesoscales
Katherine M. Smith, Alice M. Barthel, LeAnn M. Conlon, Luke P. Van Roekel, Anthony Bartoletti, Jean-Christophe Golaz, Chengzhu Zhang, Carolyn Branecky Begeman, James J. Benedict, Gautam Bisht, Yan Feng, Walter Hannah, Bryce E. Harrop, Nicole Jeffery, Wuyin Lin, Po-Lun Ma, Mathew E. Maltrud, Mark R. Petersen, Balwinder Singh, Qi Tang, Teklu Tesfa, Jonathan D. Wolfe, Shaocheng Xie, Xue Zheng, Karthik Balaguru, Oluwayemi Garuba, Peter Gleckler, Aixue Hu, Jiwoo Lee, Ben Moore-Maley, and Ana C. Ordoñez
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1613–1633, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1613-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1613-2025, 2025
Short summary
WRF-ELM v1.0: a regional climate model to study land–atmosphere interactions over heterogeneous land use regions
Huilin Huang, Yun Qian, Gautam Bisht, Jiali Wang, Tirthankar Chakraborty, Dalei Hao, Jianfeng Li, Travis Thurber, Balwinder Singh, Zhao Yang, Ye Liu, Pengfei Xue, William J. Sacks, Ethan Coon, and Robert Hetland
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1427–1443, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1427-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1427-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Achard, F., Beuchle, R., Mayaux, P., Stibig, H. J., Bodart, C., Brink, A., and Simonetti, D.: Determination of tropical deforestation rates and related carbon losses from 1990 to 2010, Glob. Change Biol., 20, 2540–2554, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12605, 2014. 
Amthor, J. S.: The McCree–de Wit–Penning de Vries–Thornley respiration paradigms: 30 years later, Ann. Bot.-London, 86, 1–20​​​​​​​, https://doi.org/10.1006/anbo.2000.1175, 2000. 
Anav, A., Friedlingstein, P., Kidston, M., Bopp, L., Ciais, P., Cox, P., Jones, C., Jung, M., Myneni, R., and Zhu, Z.: Evaluating the land and ocean components of the global carbon cycle in the CMIP5 earth system models, J. Climate, 26, 6801–6843, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00417.1, 2013. 
Anav, A., Friedlingstein, P., Beer, C., Ciais, P., Harper, A., Jones, C., and Zhao, M.: Spatiotemporal patterns of terrestrial gross primary production: A review, Rev. Geophys., 53, 785–818, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015RG000483, 2015. 
Anderson, T. R., Hawkins, E., and Jones, P. D.: CO2, the greenhouse effect and global warming: from the pioneering work of Arrhenius and Callendar to today's Earth System Models, Endeavour, 40, 178–187, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.002, 2016. 
Download
Short summary
Land biogeochemical cycles influence global climate change. Their influence is examined through complex computer models that account for the interaction of the land, ocean, and atmosphere. Improved models used in the recent round of model intercomparison used inconsistent validation methods to compare simulated land biogeochemistry to datasets. For the next round of model intercomparisons we recommend a validation protocol with explicit reference datasets and informative performance metrics.
Share