How best to include the effects of climate-driven forcing on prey fields in larval fish individual-based models
Authored by Myron A Peck, Ute Daewel, Corinna Schrum, John Michael A St
Date Published: 2008
DOI: 10.1093/plankt/fbm094
Sponsors:
German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG)
Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics Program (GLOBEC)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
If we intend to examine the indirect effects of climate variability on
the vital rates of key marine species, climate-induced changes in the
spatial-temporal dynamics of prey must be resolved. Recently, structured
population simulations have been coupled to ecosystem
(nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton-detritus, NPZD) models to derive
prey fields. Model-derived prey fields offer advantages (e.g. increased
spatial-temporal coverage, direct links to climate forcing). In
contrast, employing structured population simulations (e.g. stage-based
copepod models) has several disadvantages, including the lack of
realistic utilization of phytoplankton production, the absence of
boundary condition data and a vastly increased coupled model complexity.
To avoid the pitfalls limiting the utility of structured population
models, we argue for a more simple approach for obtaining a
size-structured prey field using NPZD model estimates of bulk
zooplankton carbon and in situ zooplankton abundance-at-size data. The
approach was developed to obtain prey fields for a larval fish
individual-based model (IBM), but the method may offer wide
applicability. Moreover, our approach greatly simplifies the coupling of
NPZD models and larval fish IBMs and is an example of the reduction in
model complexity that will be critical to the development of end-to-end
ecosystem models that use, for example, a rhomboid approach to examine
trophodynamic climate impacts at basin scales.
Tags
Phytoplankton
zooplankton
Population-dynamics
Ecosystem model
Ocean
Georges bank
North-sea
Gadus-morhua growth
Calanoid copepods
Size spectrum