CL2 Group 20
CL2 Group 20
CL2 Group 20
CIE4510-20
Climate Lab 2
CL2: The Carbon Cycle 2021-2022
Group 20
Alice Caseiro, nº 5605903
Josephine van Ruiten, nº 4598040
Juliette Bruining, nº 4465180
Maxine Luger, nº 4494555
Niels Koldewijn, nº 4543386
Instructor
Dr. S.L.M. Lhermitte
2021/2022
Contents
4 Contributions 11
A Appendix 11
A.1 Global carbon budget 1980-1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
A.1.1 Compare sources and sinks of anthropogenic CO2 for the period (1980-1989) in
the model with data from AR5 (Chapter 6, Table 6.1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
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1.1.2 Compare the emission (Gt/yr) from fossil fuel burning and land use change at years
1920 and 2000. Hint: click on “ffb” and “land use change” at the bottom of the
graphical interface. Note that it will show the same line for your two simulations,
although in reality the preindustrial simulation did not include these emissions.
Please ignore that and concentrate in your historical run.
Fossil fuel burning (‘ffb’ in model)
1920: 0.9 Gt/yr
2000: 6.7 Gt/yr
Both the fossil fuel burning and the land use change increased during the period of 1920 to 2000.
The fossil fuel burning increased more than the land use change.
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1.1.3 What is the change in Gt in the atmospheric reservoir between 1960 and 2000?
What is the corresponding increase in pCO2 in ppmv?
Atmospheric reservoir (‘ATMOSPHERE’ in model)
1960: 672 Gt
2000: 789 Gt
Increase = 789 – 672 = 117 Gt
1.1.4 What is the change in Gt in the land and ocean reservoirs between 1960 and 2000?
1.1.5 What is the sum of the changes in atmosphere, land, and ocean reservoirs between
1960 and 2000? How does this relate to the change in the fossil fuel reservoir?
Explain your answer.
Sum of changes: 117 + 26 + 8 = 151 Gt
The decrease in the fossil fuel reservoir is in the same order of magnitude as the increase of the
sum of atmosphere, land and ocean reservoirs. Most of the emissions are in the atmosphere (117 Gt)
and after that in land (26 Gt) and the surface ocean (8 Gt). 49 Gt of the emissions from the decrease
of the fossil fuel reservoir did not go to earlier mentioned reservoirs, but it is not known where it went.
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Table 1: Sources and sinks of anthropogenic carbon in the period 1990-1999, and percentage of total
anthropogenic emission in parenthesis. Source: AR5
Table 2: Bice’s model simulated sources and sinks of anthropogenic carbon in the period 1990-1999
(Gt/yr), and percentage of total anthropogenic emission in parenthesis
Calculations for Table 5: Change in total anthropogenic emissions is 91 Gt between 1990 and 2000.
Change in the land reservoir is 17 Gt, adding 27 Gt from the compensated land use emissions gives a
net sink of 44 Gt.
Analysis: The land emissions are overestimated in the input data of the model (2.7 versus 1.5
Gt/yr) with respect to AR5. Furthermore the fraction of the human emission that stays in the
atmosphere, is realistic (both 39%). Finally, the model overestimates the land sink and underestimates
the ocean sink.
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1.3.2 How does this compare with the atmospheric CO2 evolution if the land use emission
is not included? Add a figure to illustrate this.
Figure 2: Atmospheric CO2 evolution including and excluding the land use emissions
If the land use emissions are not included the atmospheric CO2 concentration evolution will de-
crease a bit (being 349.4ppmv in the year 2000 compared to 369.2ppmv), but it’s curve is going to
keep the same form and tendency as one can see in Figure 2.
1.3.3 What is the CO2 concentration currently, according to measurements? Cite your
source.
The current CO2 concentration is 416.15ppm as for December 5th. The source is the Global
Monitoring Laboratory (https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/monthly.html)
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Scenario A1b:
2100(2080Gt) − 2006(481Gt) = 1599Gt (2)
Scenario B1:
2100(1620Gt) − 2006(480Gt) = 1140Gt (3)
2.1.2 Compare with the cumulative emissions for AR5 scenarios (Figure 6.25 and Chap-
ter 6 Executive Summary, section “Future Projections”, on fossil fuel emissions
compatible with the RCPs). To which AR5 scenario are closer each of the three
AR4 scenarios?
Reading off the different values for the AR5 scenarios from figure 6.25, it gives: RCP2.6 270 Gt
RCP4.5 780 Gt RCP6.0 1060 Gt RCP8.5 1685 Gt
From here it can be said that the following AR4 scenarios are similar to the AR5 scenarios:
• A2 fits with RCP 8.5
• A1b fits with RCP 8.5
• B1 fits with RCP 6.0
This due to that the all the AR4 scenarios have a value above the RCP 6.0. This means that they are
all in a higher level of the AR5 scenarios.
2.1.3 Compare (e.g., peaks, rate of change) the annual emission curve (“addition”) in
the model, and AR5 (upper panel of Figure 6.25).
Comparing the graphs for the AR5 and the graphs from the model from AR4 it gives that A2 is
similar to RCP8.5 because the rate of change is large and the emission peak keeps increasing.
A1B is value wise in between RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5. It is closer to RCP 8.5 value wise as said
in the previous question, but has similar peeking in the end to RCP6.0, since it is flattening more
towards the end.
Comparing these AR5 values with the AR4 values from the simulated model gives the following values
below. The AR4 values are larger than the estimated AR5 values,this is due to overestimation of the
carbon content.
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• A1B: 0.391
• B1: 0.321
The airborne fraction is much higher for the AR5 simulation, when the CO2 emissions are higher.
It’s more comparable with RCP2.6 and RCP4.5. Which is different than for CO2 emission. The AR5
simulation also has a decrease in CO2 storage when the emissions increase, this is not the case for the
AR4 model, which results in the lower values for CO2.
2.3.2 Does the land remain a sink of carbon in your model? Compare this with AR5
results (Executive Summary of Chapter 6 and Figure 6.26).
The land does remain a sink of Carbon, this is due to the positive values. This is the case most of
the time in the AR5 model, however it could be possible that the land becomes a source, this happens
when the values are negative. This only happens a small part of the time.
The CO2 value increases almost the double amount when making the Tsens value negative. This
makes sense, since with global warming the overall temperature increases due to the increase of CO2
levels present in the atmosphere. Photosynthesis will decrease, this is due that when temperatures
rises the phytoplankton in the waters will die faster and because of this the photosythesis rate will
decrease.
2.4.2 What would be the land storage between 1880 and 2100 if we don’t consider the
land response to climate change? Hint: land storage is the sum of soil change and
land biota change. Alternatively, you can calculate it as the change in the reservoir
“Land Biota”.
2.4.3 Why does the land carbon increase in time (with respect to 1880) in this simulation
regardless of having suppressed the dependence with climate change?
With respect to 1880 the carbon content in the atmosphere is increased. This increase caused
the plants to grow faster, since plants use carbon dioxide to breath. Eventually with faster growing
plants this means more water. However with temperatures increasing there is a limit on water sources.
Causing the soil to dry out, this leads to plants dying. Resulting in the high peak of land carbon,
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however some carbon content is let go out of the soil, look at the permafrost, this causes the decrease
again in the land carbon and the increase in the carbon content in the atmosphere.
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Table 3: Results of the pCO2 and pH of the ocean for a bio pump value of 10 Gt/yr and an
increased value of 12 Gt/yr for the years 1880 and 2100
with geo-engineering
Default (Bio pump= 10 Gt/yr)
(Bio pump = 12 Gt/yr)
290 (in 1880) 290 (in 1880)
pCO2 Oc (ppmv)
711 (in 2100) 789 (in 2100)
8.25 (in 1880) 8.25 (in 1880)
pH
7.89 (in 2100) 7.93 (in 2100)
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4 Contributions
A Appendix
A.1 Global carbon budget 1980-1989
A.1.1 Compare sources and sinks of anthropogenic CO2 for the period (1980-1989) in
the model with data from AR5 (Chapter 6, Table 6.1)
Method: calculate the change in the reservoirs fossil fuels, atmosphere, land and ocean and in total
anthropogenic emissions between 1980 and 1989, divide by a decade to get the rates per year. You
will see that the land reservoir grows regardless of the land use emission. Add the compensated land
use emission to this growth to get the total land sink.
Table 4: Sources and sinks of anthropogenic carbon in the period 1980-1989, and percentage of total
anthropogenic emission in parenthesis. Source: AR5
Table 5: Bice’s model simulated sources and sinks of anthropogenic carbon in the period 1980-1989
(Gt/yr), and percentage of total anthropogenic emission in parenthesis
Calculations for Table 5: Between the years 1980 and 1990 the total anthropogenic emissions
change by 79 Gt. Subtracting the fossil fuel reservoir change with a value of 57Gt, we can calculate
the cumulative land emission which is equal to 22Gt. Furthermore, to obtain the total land sink we
deduce the change in the land reservoir (7.5Gt) and add the 22Gt from the compensated land use
emissions, which gives a net of 29.5Gt.
Analysis: As the soil (contributes approx. 8%) was not considered as a sink the sum of the sink
contributions in Table 5 does not reach 100%. Additionally the given model overestimates the land
emissions and the land use in comparison to the data from AR5. On the other hand, the model also
underestimates the ocean contribution. Atmosphere’s contribution as a sink, as well as the fossil fuel
contribution as a source, is very similar in both tables and therefore realistic in the model.
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