Model Types

Models integrate our understanding of ocean carbon cycling, proposing hypothesized mechanisms and trade-offs, and generating predictions. Biogeochemical models represent the conversion of elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, from inorganic substrates to organic compounds through photosynthesis by phytoplankton and ultimately back into inorganic form through heterotrophic activity. For each of the model pools, a set of equations express how the pool changes over time. Process-based biogeochemical computer models are formulated as a set of differential equations describing our best understanding of the dynamics at play in the physics, biogeochemistry, and ecology of the ocean. The ecosystem and biogeochemical components are derived from food web models and are embedded into physical fluid dynamic models that represent the transport and conservation of water, salt, and heat, as well as carbon, nutrients, and plankton. Thus, ocean biogeochemical models inherently account for interactions between marine organisms and the dynamic fluid environment in which they live. Current state-of-the-art models (Follows et al. 2018) represent a range of different microbial functional types including multiple phytoplankton groups, mixotrophs, grazers, viruses, detrital pools, and bacteria and archaea that consume the dead organic matter.

Cellular scale

• Flux Balance Analysis
• Proteome Allocation Models
• Particle Simulation
• Bio Particle Simulation

Biome scale

• Community Flux Balance Analysis
• GENOME

Global scale

• CMIP
• MARBL
• Darwin