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Assessing spatial patterns of carbon and nutrient dynamics in catchments of complex topography

Lian, Taiqi  
•
Fatichi, Simone
•
Stähli, Manfred
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February 26, 2025

The topography of a landscape regulates the spatial distribution of water and energy fluxes, which are main drivers of vegetation and soil carbon and nutrient dynamics. Despite the recognized role of topography in mediating such processes, quantifying and predicting the spatial distribution of carbon and nutrient fluxes and stocks in highly heterogeneous landscapes remains challenging. The main limitations stem from the prevalence of largely decoupled modeling approaches which fail to concurrently account for coupled ecohydrological and biogeochemical processes as well as the lack of adequate frameworks describing the links among topography, water and energy balances, and soil biogeochemical dynamics. Here, we extend the capabilities of the mechanistic ecohydrological model Tethys-Chloris-Biogeochemistry (T&C-BG) by including a soil carbon and nutrient routing module in the distributed model version. The newly developed T&C-BG-2D model is validated against long-term hydrological and biogeochemical measurements from the Hafren catchment in Wales (UK) and the Erlenbach catchment in the Swiss pre-Alps. The model successfully captures carbon and nutrient concentrations and dynamics in these catchments, with relative differences between simulated and observed median values of between -3.3% and 0.7% for dissolved organic carbon, and between -19.1% and -12.5% for ammonia. A sensitivity analysis in the Erlenbach basin suggests that elevation explains over 80% of the observed spatial patterns, followed by the topographic wetness index (12.6%), aspect (2.9%), and curvature (2.1%). These findings underscore topography’s critical role in shaping water, carbon, and nutrient dynamics, which cannot be reflected in plot-scale simulations neglecting spatial interactions and topographic effects.

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Type
preprint
DOI
10.22541/essoar.174060571.13918396/v1
Author(s)
Lian, Taiqi  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Fatichi, Simone

National University of Singapore

Stähli, Manfred

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

Bonetti, Sara  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2025-02-26

Publisher

ESS Open Archive

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CHANGE  
RelationRelated workURL/DOI

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Assessing Spatial Patterns of Carbon and Nutrient Dynamics in Catchments of Complex Topography

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/254819
Available on Infoscience
May 27, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/250784
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