Evaluating Southern Ocean biological production in two ocean biogeochemical models on daily to seasonal timescales using satellite chlorophyll and O 2 / Ar observations

• Published in: Biogeosciences
• Main Authors: B. F. Jonsson, S. Doney, J. Dunne, M. L. Bender
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2015
• Subjects: Ecology; QH540-549.5; Life; QH501-531; Geology; QE1-996.5; Drake Passage; New Zealand; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-681-2015; https://doaj.org/article/01204840e0bb459f8c09af765e3ecc48

We assess the ability of ocean biogeochemical models to represent seasonal structures in biomass and net community production (NCP) in the Southern Ocean. Two models are compared to observations on daily to seasonal timescales in four different sections of the region. We use daily satellite fields of chlorophyll (Chl) as a proxy for biomass and in situ observations of O 2 and Ar supersaturation (ΔO 2 / Ar) to estimate NCP. ΔO 2 / Ar is converted to the flux of biologically generated O 2 from sea to air (O 2 bioflux). All data are aggregated to a climatological year with a daily resolution. To account for potential regional differences within the Southern Ocean, we conduct separate analyses of sections south of South Africa, around the Drake Passage, south of Australia, and south of New Zealand. We find that the models simulate the upper range of Chl concentrations well, underestimate spring levels significantly, and show differences in skill between early and late parts of the growing season. While there is a great deal of scatter in the bioflux observations in general, the four sectors each have distinct patterns that the models pick up. Neither model exhibits a significant distinction between the Australian and New Zealand sectors and between the Drake Passage and African sectors. South of 60° S, the models fail to predict the observed extent of biological O 2 undersaturation. We suggest that this shortcoming may be due either to problems with the ecosystem dynamics or problems with the vertical transport of oxygen.