ABSTRACT
This practice helps you understand diagnostic variables in biogeochemistry matrix models. The key diagnostic variables include carbon storage capacity, storage potential, residence time, and input. We use the matrix version of the TECO model to demonstrate how to incorporate diagnostic variables from carbon balance equations. We verify the theory that carbon storage capacity represents an attractor of carbon storage dynamic. Meanwhile, we understand how changes in carbon turnover rate and input allocation fraction affect the carbon residence time and therefore the carbon storage capacity. Carbon residence time and carbon input are two essential diagnostics to characterize the steady state carbon storage in land carbon cycle modeling.
