Coupling the PLANKTOM5.0 marine ecosystem model to the OCCAM 1º ocean general circulation model for investigation of the sensitivity of global biogeochemical cycles to variations in ecosystem complexity and physical environment

Sinha, B.; Anderson, T.R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7408-1566. 2008 Coupling the PLANKTOM5.0 marine ecosystem model to the OCCAM 1º ocean general circulation model for investigation of the sensitivity of global biogeochemical cycles to variations in ecosystem complexity and physical environment. Southampton, UK, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, 36pp. (National Oceanography Centre Southampton Research and Consultancy Report 50)

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Abstract/Summary

The earliest marine ecosystem models consisted of a simple representation of the main features of marine ecosystems, including, typically, variables for phytoplankton, zooplankton, nutrient and detritus (NPZD models). These have been incorporated into ocean general circulation models to give a basic representation of ecosystem function, providing predictions of bulk quantities such as global primary production, export and biomass which can be compared with available observations. A recent trend has been to increase the number of phytoplankton and zooplankton groups modelled, as analogues of different plankton groups observed to exist in the ocean, for example diatoms and cocolithophores (the so-called plankton functional type or PFT approach). It is usually assumed that the increase in complexity of the model will result in simulated ecosystems which more faithfully reproduce observations than NPZD models, but this has not been demonstrated systematically. The robustness of the PFT models to changes in model parameters and to changes to the physical environment in which it is embedded, have not been investigated. As a first step towards these goals, we incorporate a state-of-the-art PFT model, PLANKTOM5.0 into the OCCAM ocean general circulation model. A 6 year simulation is performed, covering the years 1989-1994 with identical parameter choices to an existing run of PLANKTOM5.0 coupled to the OPA general circulation model. This document describes the development of the coupled model and the 6 year simulation. Comparison with the OPA model and sensitivity of the solution to parameter choices will be described in a forthcoming journal paper.

Item Type:	Publication - Report (Other)
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Deposited at the request of Dr Bablu Sinha
Additional Keywords:	biogeochemical cycles, global domain, model complexity, Plankton ecosystem, physical model
Date made live:	13 Oct 2008 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/163481

Item Type:

Publication - Report (Other)

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Deposited at the request of Dr Bablu Sinha

Additional Keywords:

biogeochemical cycles, global domain, model complexity, Plankton ecosystem, physical model

Date made live:

13 Oct 2008 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/163481