The regional climate–chemistry–ecology coupling model RegCM-Chem (v4.6)–YIBs (v1.0): development and application

<p>The interactions between the terrestrial biosphere, atmospheric chemistry, and climate involve complex feedbacks that have traditionally been modeled separately. We present a new framework that couples the Yale Interactive terrestrial Biosphere (YIBs) model, a dynamic plant-chemistry model, with the RegCM-Chem model. RegCM-Chem–YIBs integrates meteorological variables and atmospheric chemical composition from RegCM-Chem with land surface parameters from YIBs. The terrestrial carbon flux calculated by YIBs is fed back into RegCM-Chem interactively, thereby representing the interactions between fine particulate matter (PM<span class="inline-formula">_2.5</span>), ozone (O<span class="inline-formula">₃</span>), and carbon dioxide (CO<span class="inline-formula">₂</span>). For testing purposes, we carry out a 1-year simulation (2016) at a 30 km horizontal resolution over East Asia with RegCM-Chem–YIBs. The model accurately captures the spatio-temporal distribution of climate, chemical composition, and ecological parameters. In particular, the estimated O<span class="inline-formula">₃</span> and PM<span class="inline-formula">_2.5</span> are consistent with ground observations, with correlation coefficients (<span class="inline-formula"><i>R</i></span>) of 0.74 and 0.65, respectively. The simulated CO<span class="inline-formula">₂</span> concentration is consistent with observations from six sites (<span class="inline-formula"><i>R</i></span> ranged from 0.89 to 0.97) and exhibits a similar spatial pattern when compared with carbon assimilation products. RegCM-Chem–YIBs produces reasonably good gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP), showing seasonal and spatial distributions consistent with satellite observations, and mean biases (MBs) of 0.13 and 0.05 kg C m<span class="inline-formula">⁻²</span> yr<span class="inline-formula">⁻¹</span>. This study illustrates that RegCM-Chem–YIBs is a valuable tool to investigate coupled interactions between the terrestrial carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change at a higher resolution on a regional scale.</p>