Modeling Denitrification: Can We Report What We Don't Know?
Balázs Grosz, Amanda Matson, Klaus Butterbach‐Bahl, Timothy J. Clough, Eric A. Davidson, René Dechow, S. DelGrosso, Efstathios Diamantopoulos, Peter Dörsch, Edwin Haas, Hongxing He, Christopher V. Henri, Dafeng Hui, Kristina Kleineidam, David Kraus, Matthias Kuhnert, Joël Léonard, Christoph Müller, Søren O. Petersen, Debjani Sihi, Iris Vogeler, Reinhard Well, Jagadeesh Yeluripati, Jinbo Zhang, Clemens Scheer
Abstract
Abstract Biogeochemical models simulate soil nitrogen (N) turnover and are often used to assess N losses through denitrification. Though models simulate a complete N budget, often only a subset of N pools/fluxes (i.e., N 2 O, , NH 3 , NO x ) are published since the full budget cannot be validated with measured data. Field studies rarely include full N balances, especially N 2 fluxes, which are difficult to quantify. Limiting publication of modeling results based on available field data represents a missed opportunity to improve the understanding of modeled processes. We propose that the modeler community support publication of all simulated N pools and processes in future studies.