A physical-biogeochemical coupling scheme for modeling marine coastal ecosystems

نویسندگان

  • Ramón Filgueira
  • Jon Grant
  • Cédric Bacher
  • Michel Carreau
چکیده

Ecological modeling of dynamic systems such as marine environments may require detailed spatial resolution when the modeled area is greatly influenced by complex physical circulation. Therefore, the simulation of a marine ecosystem must be underlain by a physical model. However, coupling hydrodynamic and biogeochemical models is not straightforward. This paper presents a modeling technique that can be used to build generic and flexible fully-spatial physical–biogeochemical models to study coastal marine ecosystems using a visual modeling environment (VME). The model core is constructed in Simile, a VME that has the capacity to create multiple instances of submodels that can be interconnected, producing a fully-spatial simulation. The core is designed to assimilate a choice of different hydrodynamic models by means of matrices, enhancing its compatibility with different software. The biogeochemical model can be modified by means of a graphical interface, which facilitates sharing within the scientific community. This paper demonstrates the application of the coupling scheme to mussel aquaculture in Tracadie Bay (PEI, Eastern Canada). The model was run for two different years, 1998 and 1999, and indicated that mussel biomass exerts a top-down control of phytoplankton populations, causing a maximum chlorophyll depletion of 61.0% and 80.3% for 1998 and 1999 respectively. The difference between both years highlights the importance of inter-annual variability, which is significant from an ecosystem-level perspective because it reveals the relevance of applying a precautionary policy in the management of aquaculture activity. Therefore, the proposed core developed in Simile is a generic and flexible tool for modeling long-term processes in coastal waters, which is able to assimilate a choice of hydrodynamic models, constituting a novel approach for generating fully-spatial models using visual modeling environments. Highlights ► An offline physical–biogeochemical coupling scheme for marine systems is presented. ► The scheme can be used as a generic core to create fully-spatial models. ► The biogeochemical model can be easily modified using the Simile's GUI. ► Its application is demonstrated in an aquaculture site in PEI (Eastern Canada).

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Challenges of modeling ocean basin ecosystems.

With increasing pressure for a more ecological approach to marine fisheries and environmental management, there is a growing need to understand and predict changes in marine ecosystems. Biogeochemical and physical oceanographic models are well developed, but extending these further up the food web to include zooplankton and fish is a major challenge. The difficulty arises because organisms at h...

متن کامل

Major challenges confronting marine biogeochemical modeling

Substantial improvements are required in the current suite of numerical models if we are to better understand the present ocean biogeochemical state and predict potential future responses to anthropogenic perturbations. At present, major impediments to marine biogeochemical modeling include the inadequate representation of multi-element cycling and community structure, large-scale physical circ...

متن کامل

Modeling Biogeochemical Processes in Marine Ecosystems

Ecosystems are dynamic systems and the study of their functioning and evolution requires the development of dynamic biogeochemical models. A wide application and a pronounced development of this type of model has taken place during the last two decades due essentially, to the development of computer technology, which has permitted the handling of very complex mathematical systems, and also to t...

متن کامل

Chapter 10 . BIO - PHYSICAL INTERACTIONS OFF WESTERN SOUTH - AMERICA VIVIAN

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Physical characteristics and overview 3. Lower trophic level bio-physical-chemical interactions. 4. Holozooplankton and merozooplankton 5. Pelagic fish distribution and abundance patterns off Perú and Chile 6. The benthic, nearshore and intertidal ecosystems 7. Anthropogenic Influences 8. Conclusions 9. Appendix: Examples of biogeochemical and trophic links in specif...

متن کامل

Linking the bottom to the top in aquatic ecosystems: mechanisms and stressors of benthic-pelagic coupling

Linkages between benthic and pelagic habitats occur in both freshwater and marine systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales, and are influenced by a number of chemical, biological, and physical forces. We identified three major mechanisms of benthic-pelagic coupling: (1) organism movement, (2) trophic interactions, and (3) biogeochemical cycling. We also explore the implications of se...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Ecological Informatics

دوره 7  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2012