JULES-BE: representation of bioenergy crops and harvesting in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator vn5.1

We describe developments to the land surface model JULES, allowing for flexible user-prescribed harvest regimes of various perennial bioenergy crops or natural vegetation types. Our aim is to integrate the most useful aspects of dedicated bioenergy models into dynamic global vegetation models, in or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geoscientific Model Development 2020-03, Vol.13 (3), p.1123-1136
Main Authors: Littleton, Emma W., Harper, Anna B., Vaughan, Naomi E., Oliver, Rebecca J., Duran-Rojas, Maria Carolina, Lenton, Timothy M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Biomass
Biomass energy
Carbon
Carbon cycle
Climate change
Computer simulation
Coppicing
Corn
Crop residues
Crops
Dry matter
Energy crops
Food
Forest management
Forestry
Grasses
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Growth models
Harvest
Land surface models
Lignocellulose
Miscanthus
Mitigation
Natural vegetation
Perennial crops
Productivity
Renewable energy
Representations
Rotation
Simulators
Vegetation
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Summary:We describe developments to the land surface model JULES, allowing for flexible user-prescribed harvest regimes of various perennial bioenergy crops or natural vegetation types. Our aim is to integrate the most useful aspects of dedicated bioenergy models into dynamic global vegetation models, in order that assessment of bioenergy options can benefit from state-of-the-art Earth system modelling. A new plant functional type (PFT) representing Miscanthus is also presented. The Miscanthus PFT fits well with growth parameters observed at a site in Lincolnshire, UK; however, global observed yields of Miscanthus are far more variable than is captured by the model, primarily owing to the model's lack of representation of crop age and establishment time. Global expansion of bioenergy crop areas under a 2 ∘C emissions scenario and balanced greenhouse gas mitigation strategy from the IMAGE integrated assessment model (RCP2.6-SSP2) achieves a mean yield of 4.3 billion tonnes of dry matter per year over 2040–2099, around 30 % higher than the biomass availability projected by IMAGE. In addition to perennial grasses, JULES-BE can also be used to represent short-rotation coppicing, residue harvesting from cropland or forestry and rotation forestry.
ISSN:1991-9603
1991-962X
1991-959X
1991-9603
1991-962X
DOI:10.5194/gmd-13-1123-2020