Implementation and initial calibration of carbon-13 soil organic matter
decomposition in Yasso model
Abstract
Soil carbon sequestration has gained traction as a mean to mitigate
rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Verification of
different methods’ efficiency to increase soil carbon sink requires, in
addition to good quality measurements, reliable models capable of
simulating the effect of the sequestration practises. One way to get
insight of the methods’ effects on carbon cycling processes is to
analyse different carbon isotope concentrations in soil organic matter.
In this paper we introduce a carbon-13 isotope specific soil organic
matter decomposition add-on into the Yasso soil carbon model and assess
its functionality. The new 13C-dedicated decomposition is
straightforward to implement and depends linearly on the default Yasso
model parameters and the relative carbon isotope (13C/12C)
concentration. Despite of their simplicity, the modifications
considerably improve the model behaviour in a 50-year long simulation.