Modeling Ocean Acidification in Salish Sea with FVCOM-ICM

• Main Authors: Bianucci, Laura, Long, Wen, Khangaonkar, Tarang, Pelletier, G. J., Roberts, Mindy
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2016
• Subjects: Fresh Water Studies; Life Sciences; Marine Biology; Natural Resources and Conservation; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2016ssec/climate_change_ocean_acidification/29

As a region that connects land and ocean, the Salish Sea receives inputs from many different sources, making these coastal waters vulnerable to ocean acidification. For instance, besides the local atmospheric carbon dioxide, this semi-enclosed sea receives local and regional human contributions through discharges from wastewater treatment plants, industrial waste treatment facilities, and municipal storm water systems. Moreover, the lowering of pH in the Northeast Pacific Ocean also affects the Salish Sea, as more acidic waters get transported into the straits and estuaries. Given the complexity of the region, models are needed to improve our understanding of the drivers of ocean acidification in the Salish Sea, focusing particularly on Puget Sound. Our goal is to evaluate the role of the various sources and sinks of carbon and quantify the role of local, regional and remote forcing in order to inform future pH management for the Puget Sound area. For this purpose, we developed and coupled a carbonate-system module to our existing model of the Salish Sea, which already couples hydrodynamic and water-quality variables. The physical model is the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), which we had previously coupled to the water-quality model CE-QUAL-ICM from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We refer to this model as FVCOM-ICM. In this presentation, we will discuss the first results of our new FVCOM-ICM-CO2 model for the Salish Sea, with a focus on Puget Sound. In particular, we will show the most up-to-date version of the model calibration and our approach for investigating what processes drive ocean acidification in the region.