Riverine nitrate fate and Transport in the Great Lakes Basin using the Community Land Model
Felfelani, F., Pokhrel, Y., Phanikumar, M., Lawrence, D. M.. (2026). Riverine nitrate fate and Transport in the Great Lakes Basin using the Community Land Model. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, doi:https://doi.org/10.1029/2025ms005595
| Title | Riverine nitrate fate and Transport in the Great Lakes Basin using the Community Land Model |
|---|---|
| Genre | Article |
| Author(s) | Farshid Felfelani, Y. Pokhrel, M. Phanikumar, David M. Lawrence |
| Abstract | Agriculture and urbanization have profoundly altered the terrestrial nitrogen cycle, leading to widespread water quality degradation. Nitrogen leached from managed soils is transported and transformed through river networks, influencing downstream nutrient dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Limited knowledge of riverine nitrogen transport highlights the need for improved modeling of nitrogen transport and transformation in land models. This study presents first-order estimates of large-scale stream nitrate transport and reaction by using a newly implemented nitrogen routing scheme in the Model for Scale Adaptive River Transport (MOSART), the river routing scheme in the Community Land Model version 5 (CLM5). The new scheme explicitly simulates nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in rivers by resolving the one-dimensional advection-dispersion-reaction equation. The model is tested over the Great Lakes Basin (GLB) with fertilizer applications prescribed based on two different data sets. Results indicate that the model promisingly reproduces the observed magnitude and temporal variability of riverine nitrate concentrations. Further, nitrate delivery from lake-specific contributing subbasins to the Great Lakes shorelines is quantified across fertilizer application scenarios. When normalized by lake volume, nitrate delivery was highest in Lakes Erie and Ontario, with concentrations of approximately 9.5 and 2.2 tons km-3, respectively. An analysis of simulation minus observation reveals a modest bias toward underestimating nitrate concentrations across observation sites, partly driven by low streamflow bias and elevated numerical dispersion inherent in the transport scheme. Overall, the implemented nitrate routing framework provides a physically-based representation of large-scale riverine nitrate transport and transformations and establishes a basis for future model development and nutrient assessments within CLM5-MOSART. |
| Publication Title | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| Publication Date | Aug 21, 2026 |
| Publisher's Version of Record | https://doi.org/10.1029/2025ms005595 |
| OpenSky Citable URL | https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7sj1r6z |
| OpenSky Listing | View on OpenSky |
| CGD Affiliations | TSS |