Journal
GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages 441-456Publisher
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
DOI: 10.5194/gmd-12-441-2019
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council [LP150100064, DP140102337]
- UNSW postgraduate TFS award
- Australian Research Council [LP150100064] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Understanding phytoplankton dynamics is critical across a range of topics, spanning from fishery management to climate change mitigation. It is particularly interesting in the East Australian Current (EAC) system, as the region's eddy field strongly conditions nutrient availability and therefore phytoplankton growth. Numerical models provide unparalleled insight into these biogeochemical dynamics. Yet, to date, modelling efforts off southeastern Australia have either targeted case studies (small spatial and temporal scales) or encompassed the whole EAC system but focused on climate change effects at the mesoscale (with a spatial resolution of 1/10 degrees). Here we couple a model of the pelagic nitrogen cycle (bio_Fennel) to a 10-year high-resolution (2.5-5 km horizontal) three-dimensional ocean model (ROMS) to resolve both regional and finer-scale biogeochemical processes occurring in the EAC system. We use several statistical metrics to compare the simulated surface chlorophyll to an ocean colour dataset (Copernicus-GlobColour) for the 2003-2011 period and show that the model can reproduce the observed phytoplankton surface patterns with a domain-wide RMSE of approximately 0.2 mg Chl a m(-3) and a correlation coefficient of 0.76. This coupled configuration will provide a much-needed framework to examine phytoplankton variability in the EAC system providing insight into important ecosystem dynamics such as regional nutrient supply mechanisms and biogeochemical cycling occurring in EAC eddies.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available