A northeast United States Atlantis marine ecosystem model with ocean reanalysis and ocean color forcing

Joseph C. Caracappa, Andrew Beet, Sarah Gaichas, Robert J. Gamble, Kimberly J.W. Hyde, Scott I. Large, Ryan E. Morse, Charles A. Stock and Vincent S. Saba

Ecological Modelling, 2022, vol. 471, issue C

Abstract: The northeast United States Atlantis model (NEUSv2) is an end-to-end ecosystem model that can simulate biogeochemical, ecological, fishery, management, and socio-economic processes within marine ecosystems. As a major update to the original model, NEUSv2 includes changes to the model's functional group definitions and forcing data. NEUSv2 is the first Atlantis model to use a satellite-ocean-color-derived phytoplankton size class model that was tuned specifically for the region to force marine primary production. Additionally, physical ocean variables (currents, temperature, and salinity) were updated using a high-resolution global ocean reanalysis. Despite its coarse resolution, NEUSv2 was capable of reproducing the broad spatial patterns seen in the physical and biological forcing sources, with the exception of some circulation features. NEUSv2 produced plausible zooplankton and planktivore biomass, a stable lower trophic food web, and recent trends in zooplankton biomass. NEUSv2 meets calibration criteria for the persistence and long-term stability of functional group biomass. Given the success of this new Atlantis forcing approach, we detail the observations and challenges regarding spatial scale-related processes, data assimilation, and biological calibration. We also discuss possible tradeoffs with model scope, calibration, and the availability of feedback mechanisms. This NEUSv2 hindcast is well suited for exploring ecosystem-level sensitivity to lower trophic processes and for testing alternative biogeochemical forcing. Further developments will improve model performance for higher trophic levels.

Keywords: Atlantis; marine ecosystem models; end-to-end models; biogeochemical forcing; primary production; global reanalysis; ocean color; lower trophic levels (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030438002200148X
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:471:y:2022:i:c:s030438002200148x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110038

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 ().