WP2 - Land processes
WP Leaders
Nicolas Vuichard

CEA research scientist,
LSCE-Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace - France
I am a research scientist, expert in modelling carbon and nitrogen fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems, with an emphasis on managed lands such as croplands and pastures.
I am co-developing the ORCHIDEE model, the land surface component of the IPSL Earth System Model. Over the last twenty years, I have been involved in several research projects and Model Intercomparison Projects (MIP) aiming mostly at better quantifying the land/atmosphere carbon and water fluxes, from seasonal to multi-annual time scales, and from continental to global scales.
In ESM2025
Together with Christine Delire, I coordinate the Work Package 2 which aims at improving climate-related processes within land surface models. In particular I am interested in better constraining the response of the land productivity to the rise of atmospheric CO2 and change in nutrient availability. I am also involved in the Nitrogen cycle coupling (WP6/7) and land management modelling (WP10).
Christine Delire

CNRS research scientist,
CNRM - France
I am a research scientist in the climate modelling group of CNRM working on the representation of vegetation and soil processes. I use in-situ data to test and improve large-scale model representation of important ecosystems like the amazon, and more recently processes taking place in wetlands and the arctic.
Before settling in Toulouse, I have worked in Belgium, the US, and Montpellier (France).
In ESM2025
I coordinate the work aimed at improving the representation of processes leading to CH4 and N2O emissions by land surface models.
Milestones & Delievrables
Project start
MS2.1 – Month 6
Definition of key diagnostics to evaluate planned ESM improvements at the process level (CT1/WP2/land) and with respect to coupled interactions and coupled performance (CT2). Identification of key observational data sets and initial scoping of diagnostics intended for ESMValTool.
MS2.2 – Month 6
Definition of common development pathways to combine natural land (WP2) and human land-use (WP7) parameterization developments in the project ESMs.
MS2.3 – Month 18
Preliminary versions of the new/improved terrestrial parameterization schemes passed to CT2 for coupling and initial testing.
MS2.4 – Month 24
Land simulations (CMIP6 LS3MIP, LUMIP and TRENDY) for evaluation of new/improved parameterizations made available to XCA1.
MS2.5 – Month 27
Updated versions of new/improved terrestrial parameterization schemes passed to CT2 for final coupling, tuning and use in XCA2 coupled demonstration simulations.
D1.1 – Jan 2024
Report on the implementation and evaluation of new representations of nutrient and atmospheric CO2 controls on vegetation productivity and terrestrial carbon uptake in the land-surface components of participating ESM2025 models.
D1.2 – May 2024
Report on the implementation and evaluation of new representations of terrestrial sources of CH4, N2O, primary (wildfire) and secondary (vegetation) organic aerosol in the land-surface components of ESM2025 models.
End