How well do global ocean biogeochemistry models simulate dissolved iron distributions?
Tagliabue, Alessandro (University of Liverpool. School of Environmental Sciences)
Aumont, Olivier (Institut Pierre Simon LaPlace)
DeAth, Ros (University of Bristol. School of Geographical Sciences)
Dunne, Johan (Princeton University Forrestal Campus)
Dutkiewicz, Stephanie (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Global Change Science)
Galbraith, Eric (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Misumi, Kazuhiro (Denryoku Chūō Kenkyūjo (Tokyo, Japan))
Moore, J. Keith (University of California. Department of Earth System Science)
Ridgwell, Andy (University of California. Department of Earth Sciences)
Sherman, Elliot (University of California. Department of Earth System Science)
Stock, Charles (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (U.S.))
Vichi, Marcello (University of Cape Town. Department of Oceanography)
Völker, Christoph (Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung)
Yool, Andrew (National Oceanography Centre (Great Britain))

Date:	2016
Abstract:	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.
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Iron ; Ocean ; Biogeochemistry ; Climate ; Model
Published in:	Global biogeochemical cycles, Vol. 30, issue 2 (Feb. 2016) , p. 149-174, ISSN 0886-6236

DOI: 10.1002/2015GB005289

26 p, 6.7 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) > Integrated Earth System Dynamics Laboratory (IESD)
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