• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Eddy-resolving simulation of plankton ecosystem dynamics in the California Current System

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Author's final draft (6.742Mb)
    Supplementary material (167.0Kb)
    Date
    2006-06-13
    Author
    Gruber, Nicolas  Concept link
    Frenzel, Hartmut  Concept link
    Doney, Scott C.  Concept link
    Marchesiello, Patrick  Concept link
    McWilliams, James C.  Concept link
    Moisan, John R.  Concept link
    Oram, John J.  Concept link
    Plattner, Gian-Kasper  Concept link
    Stolzenbach, Keith D.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1370
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2006.06.005
    Keyword
     Phytoplankton dynamics; Nutrient cycling; Coastal biogeochemistry; California Current; Upwelling 
    Abstract
    We study the dynamics of the planktonic ecosystem in the coastal upwelling zone within the California Current System using a three-dimensional, eddy-resolving circulation model coupled to an ecosystem/biogeochemistry model. The physical model is based on the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS), configured at a resolution of 15 km for a domain covering the entire U.S. West Coast, with an embedded child grid covering the central California upwelling region at a resolution of 5 km. The model is forced with monthly mean boundary conditions at the open lateral boundaries as well as at the surface. The ecological/biogeochemical model is nitrogen based, includes single classes for phytoplankton and zooplankton, and considers two detrital pools with different sinking speeds. The model also explicitly simulates a variable chlorophyll-to-carbon ratio. Comparisons of model results with either remote sensing observations (AVHRR, SeaWiFS) or in situ measurements from the CalCOFI program indicate that our model is capable of replicating many of the large-scale, time averaged features of the coastal upwelling system. An exception is the underestimation of the chlorophyll levels in the northern part of the domain, perhaps because of the lack of short-term variations in the forcing from the atmosphere. Another shortcoming is that the modeled thermocline is too diffuse, and that the upward slope of the isolines toward the coast is too small. Detailed time-series comparisons with observations from Monterey Bay reveal similar agreements and discrepancies. We attribute the good agreement between the modeled and observed ecological properties in large part to the accuracy of the physical fields. In turn, many of the discrepancies can be traced back to our use of monthly mean forcing. Analysis of the ecosystem structure and dynamics reveal that the magnitude and pattern of phytoplankton biomass in the nearshore region are determined largely by the balance of growth and zooplankton grazing, while in the offshore region, growth is balanced by mortality. The latter appears to be inconsistent with in situ observations and is a result of our consideration of only one zooplankton size class (mesozooplankton), neglecting the importance of microzooplankton grazing in the offshore region. A comparison of the allocation of nitrogen into the different pools of the ecosystem in the 3-D results with those obtained from a box model configuration of the same ecosystem model reveals that only a few components of the ecosystem reach a local steady-state, i.e. where biological sources and sinks balance each other. The balances for the majority of the components are achieved by local biological source and sink terms balancing the net physical divergence, confirming the importance of the 3-D nature of circulation and mixing in a coastal upwelling system.
    Description
    Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 53 (2006): 1483-1516, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2006.06.005.
    Collections
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    Suggested Citation
    Preprint: Gruber, Nicolas, Frenzel, Hartmut, Doney, Scott C., Marchesiello, Patrick, McWilliams, James C., Moisan, John R., Oram, John J., Plattner, Gian-Kasper, Stolzenbach, Keith D., "Eddy-resolving simulation of plankton ecosystem dynamics in the California Current System", 2006-06-13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2006.06.005, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1370
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Hydrographic conditions near the coast of northwestern Baja California : 1997–2004 

      Perez-Brunius, Paula; Lopez, Manuel; Pineda, Jesus (2005-05-18)
      The effects of the 1997-98 and 2002-04 El Ni˜no on the upper waters in the con- tinental shelf and slope regions off northwestern Baja California are explored with data from eight cruises taken in late spring from 1998 ...
    • Thumbnail

      Dynamic triggering of creep events in the Salton Trough, Southern California by regional M≥5.4M≥5.4 earthquakes constrained by geodetic observations and numerical simulations 

      Wei, Meng; Liu, Yajing; Kaneko, Yoshihiro; McGuire, Jeffrey J.; Bilham, Roger (2015-06)
      Since a regional earthquake in 1951, shallow creep events on strike-slip faults within the Salton Trough, Southern California have been triggered at least 10 times by M ≥ 5.4 earthquakes within 200 km. The high earthquake ...
    • Thumbnail

      Eddy–wind interaction in the California Current System : dynamics and impacts 

      Seo, Hyodae; Miller, Arthur J.; Norris, Joel R. (American Meteorological Society, 2015-11-30)
      The summertime California Current System (CCS) is characterized by energetic mesoscale eddies, whose sea surface temperature (SST) and surface current can significantly modify the wind stress and Ekman pumping. Relative ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy