Modeled phytoplankton diversity and productivity in the California Current System

N.L. Goebel, C.A. Edwards, J.P. Zehr, M.J. Follows and S.G. Morgan

Ecological Modelling, 2013, vol. 264, issue C, 37-47

Abstract: We explore the phytoplankton community structure and the relationship between phytoplankton diversity and productivity produced by a self-emergent ecosystem model that represents a large number of phytoplankton type and is coupled to a circulation model of the California Current System. Biomass of each modeled phytoplankton type, when averaged over the uppermost model level and for 5-years, spans 7 orders of magnitude; 13 phytoplankton types contribute to the top 99.9% of community biomass, defining modeled species richness. Instantaneously, modeled species richness ranges between 1 and 17 while the Shannon index reaches values of 2.3. Diversity versus primary productivity shows large scatter with low species richness at both high and low productivity levels and a wide range of values including the maximum at intermediate productivities. Highest productivity and low diversity is found in the nearshore upwelling region dominated by fast growing diatoms; lowest productivity and low diversity occurs in deep, light-limited regions; and intermediate productivity and high diversity characterize offshore, oligotrophic surface waters. Locally averaged diversity and productivity covary in time with the sign of correlation dependent on geographic region as representing portions of the diversity-productivity scatter.

Keywords: Diversity; Shannon index; Species richness; Productivity; Phytoplankton; Model; California Current System (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380012005455
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:264:y:2013:i:c:p:37-47

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.11.008

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().