{"id":1125,"date":"2021-11-25T12:22:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T12:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-soils\/?page_id=1125"},"modified":"2025-08-18T10:59:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:59:45","slug":"plant-soil-nutrient-cycling-model","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-soils\/plant-soil-nutrient-cycling-model\/","title":{"rendered":"N14CP Plant-Soil Nutrient Cycling Model"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tThe N14CP model is a process-based representation of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in plants and soils. It simulates the interconnected movement of these nutrients from atmosphere to plants to soils and to waterways for a wide range of typical natural and agricultural ecosystems with mineral soils in boreal and temperate regions.<\/p>
It is driven by climate data, nutrient inputs from human activities and from the atmosphere, geology, and land use and management.\u00a0<\/p>
It simulates processes such as plant growth, plant litter production, decomposition, immobilisation, denitrification, and weathering.<\/p>
It produces estimates of:<\/p>
<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
All models have different objectives, strengths and weaknesses. The N14CP model was developed to:<\/p>
1.Integrate carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles<\/b>: as all three cycles have been extensively and intensively disturbed by human activities, such as inorganic fertilizer use in agriculture and atmospheric nitrogen pollution from fossil fuel burning. All three cycles are interlinked by biological processes, so it’s important we consider them together.<\/p>
2. Explore the effects of l<\/strong>and use change<\/b>: including transitions between natural and agricultural land uses.\u00a0<\/p> 3. Simulate long term and large scale<\/strong> changes: <\/b>N14CP Runs on quarterly timestep allowing long term simulation (decades\/centuries), using readily available data at site to national\/regional scales. It has also been developed using large data sets to be broadly applicable across sites, meaning it doesn\u2019t require site-specific data for calibration.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t All models have different limitations. For N14CP these include:\u00a0<\/p> The N14CP model has been developed and extensively tested using data from:<\/p> The model has been used to simulate specific sites (i.e. plot to field scale) across Northern Europe and applied at a national scale for the UK.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t You can find out more about the model and it’s past applications in our publications, most of which are open access.<\/p> The original creator of the model, Prof. Ed Tipping, named it. The reasoning behind the name is:<\/p> a) It does what it says on the tin: it simulates carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycles as well as radiocarbon (14C). Including radiocarbon gives us a useful opportunity to test the turnover rates of soil using radiocarbon data. Bomb carbon from nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s created a pulse of 14C in the atmosphere that has been absorbed by plants during photosynthesis and incorporated into soils along with the plant matter. Measuring 14C in soils and using it in models can help us estimate the speed at which organic matter in soils decompose, which is important for carbon storage and ecosystem productivity. Read more about the bomb pulse.<\/a><\/p> b) It’s mildly amusing to chemists. Nitrogen has an atomic mass of 14 (N-14) and radiocarbon is 14C – hence N14C.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\tModel description:<\/h4>
Applications:<\/h4>
Contact<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t