IPSL-Perm-LandN: improving the IPSL Earth System Model to represent permafrost carbon-nitrogen interactions

Abstract. Permafrost soils have the potential to release large amounts of soil carbon to the atmosphere under climate change. However, in the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), only two Earth System Models (ESM) represented permafrost carbon, both sharing the same land surface model. This makes future permafrost carbon dynamics highly uncertain and underscores the urgent need to include permafrost carbon in ESMs to enable more reliable future projections of climate change and remaining carbon budget estimates. Here, we present IPSL-Perm-LandN, an improved version of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL) ESM (used for CMIP6) aiming at better representing high-latitude land ecosystems. The main developments are the inclusion of an explicit nitrogen cycle and of key permafrost physical and biogeochemical processes. The latent heat associated with soil water freeze/thaw is taken into account in the energy budget, as well as soil thermal insulation by soil organic matter and a surface organic layer (e.g. litter or moss). Soil organic carbon and nitrogen are vertically resolved with depth-dependent decomposition dynamics, a key feature for representing the effect of gradual permafrost thaw on soil biogeochemistry. Cryoturbation is represented as a diffusion process that buries organic matter in the deeper soil layers. Compared to the previous version of the model used for CMIP6, we show that the extent of the permafrost region has improved significantly and that the simulated active layer thickness in the Arctic is in better agreement with observations. Permafrost soil carbon stocks have increased 20-fold to reach 1006 PgC in the top 3 m of soil, which is consistent with observation-based estimates. We simulate that the permafrost region has been a net carbon sink over the past 150 years (+0.32 ± 0.04 PgC yr−1 on average between 2005 and 2014), primarily due to carbon uptake from boreal forests. This is comparable with recent pan-Arctic carbon balance estimates, when accounting for unrepresented processes in our model (fire and riverine carbon losses). Overall, the inclusion of permafrost processes has improved the response of the model to anthropogenic perturbations in high latitudes over the past century, marking a step forward in the representation of Arctic ecosystems.