CENTURY Ecosystem Model for Carbon and Nutrient Dynamics

The CENTURY model, Version 4, simulates carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur cycling across grasslands, agricultural lands, forests, and savannas. It integrates submodels for soil organic matter decomposition, water budgets, and plant production. Developed by NASA, this general plant-soil nutrient cycling model is used to assess ecosystem responses to climate change and management.

Use Cases

• Simulating long-term soil carbon storage and decomposition rates using the soil organic matter submodel.
• Modeling the impact of agricultural practices on nitrogen and phosphorus flows in crop systems.
• Assessing forest production and nutrient cycling under different climate change scenarios.
• Evaluating water budget effects on grassland and savanna ecosystem dynamics.
• Scheduling management events to analyze their influence on sulfur and other nutrient compartments.

Strengths

• Model covers multiple major ecosystem types: grasslands, agricultural lands, forests, and savannas.
• Simulates the flow of four key biogeochemical elements: carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData indicates established scientific use.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs significantly between Data.gov (2026-03-13) and NASA EarthData (1995-01-01).
• No concrete dataset size, row count, or specific column names are provided by any source.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' with no further details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Computational simulation outputs from the CENTURY model, Version 4.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03-13 05:36:58.703079

Geography

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