Anderson Laurence A.

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Anderson
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Laurence A.
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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Article
    Assessment of skill and portability in regional marine biogeochemical models : role of multiple planktonic groups
    (American Geophysical Union, 2007-08-02) Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. ; Dusenberry, Jeffrey A. ; Anderson, Laurence A. ; Armstrong, Robert A. ; Chai, Fei ; Christian, James R. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dunne, John P. ; Fujii, Masahiko ; Hood, Raleigh R. ; McGillicuddy, Dennis J. ; Moore, J. Keith ; Schartau, Markus ; Spitz, Yvette H. ; Wiggert, Jerry D.
    Application of biogeochemical models to the study of marine ecosystems is pervasive, yet objective quantification of these models' performance is rare. Here, 12 lower trophic level models of varying complexity are objectively assessed in two distinct regions (equatorial Pacific and Arabian Sea). Each model was run within an identical one-dimensional physical framework. A consistent variational adjoint implementation assimilating chlorophyll-a, nitrate, export, and primary productivity was applied and the same metrics were used to assess model skill. Experiments were performed in which data were assimilated from each site individually and from both sites simultaneously. A cross-validation experiment was also conducted whereby data were assimilated from one site and the resulting optimal parameters were used to generate a simulation for the second site. When a single pelagic regime is considered, the simplest models fit the data as well as those with multiple phytoplankton functional groups. However, those with multiple phytoplankton functional groups produced lower misfits when the models are required to simulate both regimes using identical parameter values. The cross-validation experiments revealed that as long as only a few key biogeochemical parameters were optimized, the models with greater phytoplankton complexity were generally more portable. Furthermore, models with multiple zooplankton compartments did not necessarily outperform models with single zooplankton compartments, even when zooplankton biomass data are assimilated. Finally, even when different models produced similar least squares model-data misfits, they often did so via very different element flow pathways, highlighting the need for more comprehensive data sets that uniquely constrain these pathways.
  • Preprint
    The seasonal nitrogen cycle in Wilkinson Basin, Gulf of Maine, as estimated by 1-D biological model optimization
    ( 2009-04-22) Anderson, Laurence A.
    The objective of this study was to fit a simple ecosystem model to climatological nitrogen cycle data in the Gulf of Maine, in order to calibrate the biological model for use in future 3-D modelling studies. First depth-dependent monthly climatologies of nitrate, ammonium, chlorophyll, zooplankton, detritus and primary production data from Wilkinson Basin, Gulf of Maine, were created. A 6-box nitrogen-based ecosystem model was objectively fitted to the data through parameter optimization. Optimization was based on weighted least squares with model-data misfits nondi- mensionalized by assigned uncertainties in the monthly climatological estimates. These uncertainties were estimated as the standard deviations of the raw data from the 6-meter and monthly bin averages. On average the model fits the monthly means almost within their assigned uncertainties. Several statistics are examined to assess model-data misfit. Pattern statistics such as the correlation coefficient lack practical significance when data errors are large relative to the signal, as in this application. Thus Taylor diagrams were not found to be useful. The RMSE and model bias normalized by the data error were found to be the most useful skill metrics as they indicate whether the model fits the data within its estimated error. The optimal simulated nitrogen cycle budgets are presented, as an estimate of the seasonal nitrogen cycle in Wilkinson Basin, and discussed in context of the available data.Wilkinson Basin has spring and fall phytoplankton blooms, and strong summer stratification with a deep chlorophyll maximum near 21 m, just above the nitracline. The mean euphotic zone depth is estimated to be 25 m, relatively constant with season. The model estimates annual primary production as 176 g C m−2 yr−1, annual new production as 71 g C m−2 yr−1 and sinking PON fluxes of 9.7 and 4.7 g N m−2 yr−1 at 24 and 198 m respectively. Areas for improvement in the biological model, the model optimization method, and significant data gaps are identified.
  • Article
    Net community production of oxygen derived from in vitro and in situ 1-D modeling techniques in a cyclonic mesoscale eddy in the Sargasso Sea
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2009-08-26) Mourino-Carballido, Beatriz ; Anderson, Laurence A.
    It has been proposed that the disagreement traditionally reported between in vitro incubation and in situ estimates of oxygen net community production (NCP) could be explained, at least partially, by undersampling episodic pulses of net autotrophy associated with mesoscale dynamics. In this study we compare in vitro incubation estimates of net community production with in situ estimates, derived from oxygen profiles and a 1-D model, within a cyclonic eddy investigated in the Sargasso Sea in summer 2004. The in vitro NCP rates measured at the center of the eddy showed a shift from net autotrophy (7±3 mmol O2 m−2 d−1) to net heterotrophy (−25±5 mmol O2 m−2 d−1) from late June to early August. The model-derived NCP rates also showed a temporal decline (19±6 to −3±7 and 11±8 mmol O2 m−2 d−1), but they were systematically higher than the in vitro estimates and reported net autotrophy or balance for the sampling period. In this comparison episodic pulses in photosynthesis or respiration driven by mesoscale eddies can not explain the discrepancy between the in vitro and in situ estimates of NCP. This points to methodological artefacts or temporal or submesoscale variability as the mechanisms responsible for the disagreement between the techniques, at least in this dataset.
  • Preprint
    Impact of eddy–wind interaction on eddy demographics and phytoplankton community structure in a model of the North Atlantic Ocean
    ( 2010-12) Anderson, Laurence A. ; McGillicuddy, Dennis J. ; Maltrud, Mathew E. ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Doney, Scott C.
    Two eddy-resolving (0.1-degree) physical-biological simulations of the North Atlantic Ocean are compared, one with the surface momentum flux computed only from wind velocities and the other using the difference between air and ocean velocity vectors. This difference in forcing has a significant impact on the intensities and relative number of different types of mesoscale eddies in the Sargasso Sea. Eddy/wind interaction significantly reduces eddy intensities and increases the number of mode-water eddies and “thinnies” relative to regular cyclones and anticyclones; it also modifies upward isopycnal displacements at the base of the euphotic zone, increasing them in the centers of mode water eddies and at the edges of cyclones, and decreasing them in the centers of cyclones. These physical changes increase phytoplankton growth rates and biomass in mode-water eddies, bringing the biological simulation into better agreement with field data. These results indicate the importance of including the eddy/wind interaction in simulations of the physics and biology of eddies in the subtropical North Atlantic. However, eddy intensities in the simulation with eddy/wind interaction are lower than observed, which suggests a decrease in horizontal viscosity or an increase in horizontal grid resolution will be necessary to regain the observed level of eddy activity.
  • Article
    Regional differences in modelled net production and shallow remineralization in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2012-08-01) Fernandez-Castro, B. ; Anderson, Laurence A. ; Marañón, Emilio ; Neuer, Susanne ; Ausiin, B. ; Gonzalez-Davila, M. ; Santana-Casiano, J. M. ; Cianca, Andrés ; Santana, R. ; Llinas, Octavio ; Rueda, María José ; Mourino-Carballido, Beatriz
    We used 5-yr concomitant data of tracer distribution from the BATS (Bermuda Time-series Study) and ESTOC (European Station for Time-Series in the Ocean, Canary Islands) sites to build a 1-D tracer model conservation including horizontal advection, and then compute net production and shallow remineralization rates for both sites. Our main goal was to verify if differences in these rates are consistent with the lower export rates of particulate organic carbon observed at ESTOC. Net production rates computed below the mixed layer to 110 m from April to December for oxygen, dissolved inorganic carbon and nitrate at BATS (1.34±0.79 mol O2 m−2, −1.73±0.52 mol C m−2 and −125±36 mmol N m−2) were slightly higher for oxygen and carbon compared to ESTOC (1.03±0.62 mol O2 m−2, −1.42±0.30 mol C m−2 and −213±56 mmol N m−2), although the differences were not statistically significant. Shallow remineralization rates between 110 and 250 m computed at ESTOC (−3.9±1.0 mol O2 m−2, 1.53±0.43 mol C m−2 and 38±155 mmol N m−2) were statistically higher for oxygen compared to BATS (−1.81±0.37 mol O2 m−2, 1.52±0.30 mol C m−2 and 147±43 mmol N m−2). The lateral advective flux divergence of tracers, which was more significant at ESTOC, was responsible for the differences in estimated oxygen remineralization rates between both stations. According to these results, the differences in net production and shallow remineralization cannot fully explain the differences in the flux of sinking organic matter observed between both stations, suggesting an additional consumption of non-sinking organic matter at ESTOC.