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How well do global ocean biogeochemistry models simulate dissolved iron distributions?

Global biogeochemical cycles, 2016-02, Vol.30 (2), p.149-174 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. ;2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. ;Copyright ;ISSN: 0886-6236 ;EISSN: 1944-9224 ;DOI: 10.1002/2015GB005289

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  • Title:
    How well do global ocean biogeochemistry models simulate dissolved iron distributions?
  • Author: Tagliabue, Alessandro ; Aumont, Olivier ; DeAth, Ros ; Dunne, John P. ; Dutkiewicz, Stephanie ; Galbraith, Eric ; Misumi, Kazuhiro ; Moore, J. Keith ; Ridgwell, Andy ; Sherman, Elliot ; Stock, Charles ; Vichi, Marcello ; Völker, Christoph ; Yool, Andrew
  • Subjects: Biogeochemistry ; Carbon ; climate ; Ecosystems ; Geophysics ; iron ; ocean ; Physics ; Sciences of the Universe
  • Is Part Of: Global biogeochemical cycles, 2016-02, Vol.30 (2), p.149-174
  • Description: Numerical models of ocean biogeochemistry are relied upon to make projections about the impact of climate change on marine resources and test hypotheses regarding the drivers of past changes in climate and ecosystems. In large areas of the ocean, iron availability regulates the functioning of marine ecosystems and hence the ocean carbon cycle. Accordingly, our ability to quantify the drivers and impacts of fluctuations in ocean ecosystems and carbon cycling in space and time relies on first achieving an appropriate representation of the modern marine iron cycle in models. When the iron distributions from 13 global ocean biogeochemistry models are compared against the latest oceanic sections from the GEOTRACES program, we find that all models struggle to reproduce many aspects of the observed spatial patterns. Models that reflect the emerging evidence for multiple iron sources or subtleties of its internal cycling perform much better in capturing observed features than their simpler contemporaries, particularly in the ocean interior. We show that the substantial uncertainty in the input fluxes of iron results in a very wide range of residence times across models, which has implications for the response of ecosystems and global carbon cycling to perturbations. Given this large uncertainty, iron fertilization experiments based on any single current generation model should be interpreted with caution. Improvements to how such models represent iron scavenging and also biological cycling are needed to raise confidence in their projections of global biogeochemical change in the ocean. Key Points First intercomparison of 13 global iron models highlights key challenges in reproducing iron data Wide uncertainty in iron input fluxes, which results in poorly constrained residence times Reducing uncertainty in scavenging and biological cycling is a priority
  • Publisher: Washington: Blackwell Publishing Ltd
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 0886-6236
    EISSN: 1944-9224
    DOI: 10.1002/2015GB005289
  • Source: Hyper Article en Ligne (HAL) (Open Access)
    Wiley Blackwell AGU Digital Library
    Alma/SFX Local Collection

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