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Integrating Multi-Media Models to Assess Nitrogen Losses from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico (2018 AGU Fall Meeting)
Citation:
Yuan, Y. Integrating Multi-Media Models to Assess Nitrogen Losses from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico (2018 AGU Fall Meeting). 2018 AGU Fall Meeting, Washington, DC, December 10 - 14, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation at the 2018 AGU Fall Meeting
Description:
This study describes and implements an integrated, multimedia, process-based system-level approach to estimating nitrogen (N) fate and transport in large river basins. The modeling system includes the following components: 1) Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ); 2) Water Research and Forecasting (WRF); 3) Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC); and 4) Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The previously developed Fertilizer Emission Scenario Tool for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (FEST-C) system integrated EPIC with the WRF model and CMAQ. FEST-C, driven by process-based WRF weather simulations, includes atmospheric N additions to agricultural cropland, and agricultural cropland contributions to ammonia emissions. Watershed hydrology and water quality models need to be integrated with the system (FEST-C), however, so it can be used in large river basins to address impacts of fertilization, meteorology, and atmospheric N deposition on water quality. Objectives of this paper are to describe how to expand the previous effort by integrating a watershed model with the FEST-C (CMAQ/WRF/EPIC) modeling system, as well as demonstrate application of the Integrated Modeling System (IMS) to the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) to simulate streamflow and dissolved N loadings to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). IMS simulation results generally agree with USGS observations/estimations; the annual simulated streamflow is 218.9mm and USGS observation is 211.1mm and the annual simulated dissolved N is 2.1kg/ha. and the USGS estimation is 2.8kg/ha. Integrating SWAT with the CMAQ/WRF/EPIC modeling system allows for its use within large river basins without losing EPIC’s more detailed biogeochemistry processes, which will strengthen assessment of impacts of future climate scenarios, regulatory and voluntary programs for nitrogen oxide air emissions, and land use and land management on N transport and transformation in large river basins.
