HR: 15:45h
AN: OS52I-06    [PDF]
TI: Comparison of Two- and Three-Dimensional Simulations of the Ecosystem Response to Upwelling off the Oregon Coast
AU: * Spitz, Y H
EM: yvette@coas.oregonstate.edu
AF: Oregon State University, COAS, 104 Ocean Admin. Bldg, Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AU: Allen, J S
EM: jallen@coas.oregonstate.edu
AF: Oregon State University, COAS, 104 Ocean Admin. Bldg, Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AU: Gan, J
AF: Department of Mathematics and Atmospheric, Marine and Coastal Environment (AMCE) program, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong
AB: Traditionally, ecosystem models in the coastal upwelling regions have been coupled to two-dimensional (vertical plane) high resolution circulation models. This two-dimensional approach allows for a thorough calibration of the ecosystem model and analysis of the effect of upwelling on the ecosystem without penalization by high computational cost. It is not clear, however, that a two-dimensional simulation is sufficient to represent adequately the ecosystem behavior even when the upwelling current can be simulated with a two-dimensional model. Time-dependent, two and three-dimensional responses of the ecosystem to upwelling off the Oregon coast are studied using the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) and a coupled five-component ecosystem model (NNPZD) (Spitz et al., 2002). We consider the summer 2001 when observations from the COAST project are available for locations with different shelf widths. Preliminary results show that even for a narrow shelf, the two-dimensional simulated phytoplankton and zooplankton concentrations display offshore patterns and reach amplitudes different from the three-dimensional simulated concentrations. The relative contributions of physical and biological forcing to the ecosystem response for the two- and three-dimensional simulations will be compared.
DE: 4255 Numerical modeling
DE: 4279 Upwelling and convergences
DE: 4842 Modeling
DE: 4845 Nutrients and nutrient cycling
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting