Improving Land Surface Processes in ACCESS-ESM1.6: New Australian Vegetation Types and Model Updates
Alexander John Norton
1. The land plays a significant role in the global cycling of carbon, water and energy, with potential to amplify or dampen anthropogenic climate change. In Australia’s ACCESS Earth System Model (ACCESS-ESM), many of these processes are represented within the land component CABLE, yet they remain a major source of uncertainty in future climate projections—both within ACCESS-ESM and across the broader CMIP ensemble. 2. In ACCESS-ESM1.6, the latest development version for CMIP7, several land model improvements have been made to better represent biophysical and biogeochemical processes. Globally, key updates include refined land-use change forcing, forest thinning, wood harvest, and modified nutrient effects on photosynthesis. To improve representation of diverse Australian ecosystems, two new vegetation types – mesic and xeric evergreen broadleaf trees – have been added alongside changes in vegetation distribution, structure, and physiology. 3. We assess how these land model updates impact carbon, water, and energy cycles, through comparison with the previous model version and evaluation against independent datasets. Particular attention is given to the Australian continent, where the introduction of the new vegetation types yields notable changes in modelled carbon and water dynamics. 4. Developers and users of CABLE and ACCESS-ESM1.6. Researchers interested in land processes. 5. Land, carbon, climate, vegetation, CABLE, ACCESS-ESM
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