ASP Colloquium 2007Monday June 4, 2007

CENTURY TUTORIAL

Tutorial leaders:

Bill Parton and Cindy Keough

CENTURY

• Brief overview– Beginning– Components

CENTURYgeneralized plant-soil ecosystem model that

simulates:

plant production,

soil carbon dynamics,

soil nutrient dynamics, and

soil water and temperature.

Overall flow diagram for the CENTURY model.

CENTURY

• Brief overview– Beginning– Components– SOM pools: active, slow and passive– Disturbances– Uses/applications (crops, grasslands, forests)– Trial runs

Data requirements for running the Century

model You will need to create a parameterization for you site. Site specific

information that is required for a CENTURY run includes:• monthly precipitation in centimeters• monthly mean minimum temperatures in degrees Celsius• monthly mean maximum temperatures in degrees Celsius• site latitude and longitude• % sand, silt, and clay in top 20 cm layer of mineral soil• bulk density of the top 20 cm layer of soil (g/cm^3)• rooting depth and root distribution of the vegetation (in cm)• best estimate of annual wet and dry N deposition• C in the soil organic matter in the top 20 cm of soil• N in the soil organic matter in the top 20 cm of soil

Data requirements for running the Century

model Determine the type of system you will be simulating:• grassland/cropping• forest• savanna

You will need to know at least the following about the vegetation growing at your site in order to parameterize the model:

• productivity of vegetation (gC/m^2 per year or growing season)• C:N ratio of aboveground and belowground vegetation if modeling a

crop/grassland or split into leaves, branches, large wood, fine roots, and coarse roots for a forested system

• root to shoot ratio of vegetation if modeling a crop/grassland or % allocation of production to leaves, branches, large wood, fine roots, and coarse roots for a forested system

• lignin content of vegetation, aboveground and belowground for grasses; split into leaves, branches, large wood, fine roots, and coarse roots for a forested system

TRIAL RUNS:

Running the Century model The usual sequence of events:

• 1. Create the desired parameterizations in the *.100 files using FILE100.

• 2. Use EVENT100 to create the schedule file for your simulation.

• 3. Run the CENTURY simulation.

• 4. Use LIST100 to extract the desired output from the binary output file produced by your CENTURY run.

CENTURY model environment.

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CENTURY

• Brief overview– Beginning– Components– SOM pools: active, slow and passive– Disturbances– Uses/applications– Trial runs– Current state (DAYCENT)

CENTURY

It began with soil managing,

Today deals with C-sequestering.

SOM turnover is the key,

Acting fast, slow, and passively;

There’s disturbance and productivity,

Soil nutrients and basic hydrology.

That’s a bit on CENTURY

Thanks to Bill and Cindy.

web site: http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/projects/century