Impacts of atmospheric variability on a coupled upper-ocean/ecosystem model of the subarctic northeast Pacific. Pacific Global Biogeochemical Cycles 18(GB2010), doi

• Main Authors: Adam Hugh Monahan, Kenneth L. Denman
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Pacific; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.218.7964; http://www.cccma.bc.ec.gc.ca/papers/kdenman/PDF/MonDen04.pdf

[1] The biologically-mediated flux of carbon from the upper ocean to below the permanent thermocline (the biological pump) is estimated to be 10 PgC/yr [Houghton et al., 2001], and plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. A detailed quantitative understanding of the dynamics of the biological pump is therefore important, particularly in terms of its potential sensitivity to climate change and its role in this change via feedback processes. Previous studies of coupled upper-ocean/ planktonic ecosystem dynamics have considered models forced by observed atmospheric variability or by smooth annual and diurnal cycles. The second approach has the drawback that environmental variability is ubiquitous in the climate system, and may have a nontrivial impact on the (nonlinear) dynamics of the system, while the first approach is limited by the fact that observed time series are generally too short to obtain statistically robust characterizations of variability in the system. In the present study, an empirical stochastic model of high-frequency atmospheric variability (with a decorrelation timescale of less than a week) is estimated from long-term observations at Ocean Station Papa in the northeast subarctic Pacific. This empirical