HR: 0800h
AN: B51A-0191    [Abstracts]
TI: Oceanic Distributions of Si, N, and Their Isotopes in a Low-Resolution Ocean Model
AU: * Matsumoto, K
EM: katsumi@umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, Department of Geology and Geophysics, 310 Pillsbury Dr., SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
AU: Plattner, G
EM: plattner@climate.unibe.ch
AF: University of Bern, Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, Sidlerstrasse 5, Bern, CH-3012 Switzerland
AB: Vostok ice core measurements show that atmospheric CO2 content has fluctuated by approximately 100 ppm over the last four glacial-interglacial cycles with remarkably stable upper and lower bounds. Since its first discovery in the 1980s, this fluctuation and its cause remain a mystery. Many of the explanations proposed over the years call on changes in some aspect of the oceans, including the distributions of biogeochemically important tracers. Here we investigate the oceanic distributions of silica and nitrogen and their stable isotopes in the Bern2.5D model, which is a low resolution, 2.5-dimensional, dynamical ocean model. Our focus is on the sensitivity of tracer distributions in the water column and surface sediments to key model parameters. Our ultimate goal is to examine the explanations put forward to account for the glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 variability.
DE: 4255 Numerical modeling (0545, 0560)
DE: 4805 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 1615, 4912)
DE: 4845 Nutrients and nutrient cycling (0470, 1050)
DE: 4870 Stable isotopes (0454, 1041)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005