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Model Types

From OceanWiki

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, 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[1].
Current state-of-the-art models 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[2].

If you would like to add a model type page, please use the Model wiki template.

Cellular scale

Biome scale

Global scale

References

  1. Naomi M. Levine, Harriet Alexander, Erin M. Bertrand, Victoria J. Coles, Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Suzana G. Leles and Emily J. Zakem. 2025. Microbial Ecology to Ocean Carbon Cycling: From Genomes to Numerical Models.Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, Vol. 53:595-624, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-040523-020630
  2. Follows MJ, Dutkiewicz S, Ward B, Follett CN. 2018. Theoretical interpretations of subtropical plankton biogeography. In Microbial Ecology of the Oceans, ed. JM Gasol, DL Kirchman , pp. 467–94. Hoboken, NJ:: Wiley & Sons, http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/33641/1/pdf.52#page=484