Model responses to CO₂ and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small-mammal grazing.

ABSTRACT: We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how "explicitly representing grazers" vs. "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 compared with the processes with which they are typically aggregated. We use small-mammal grazers in a 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-mam

SUBMITTER: Rastetter EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9285540 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature