R. Ji
Department of Biology
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Working with:
PI team: Davis, Chen, Beardsley, Townsend, Durbin, Runge, Flagg
UMASS-D modeling group: Q. Xu, G. Cowles, R. Tian, S. Hu, D. Stuebe
Davis Lab: Q. Hu, C. Petrik NMFS: D. Mountain, J. Hare, M. Taylor
| HTML version | PowerPoint version |
Abstract
An update on the current status of biological-physical coupled modeling study for NPZD and copepod population dynamics (CPD) was presented, with a focus on CPD model experiments and analysis on model results for Pseudocalanus spp. in year 1999. The numerical experiments include baseline model runs and scenario testing with different food limitation and mortality formulations. The self-sustainability of the population on Georges Bank (GB) was also examined by initializing the model with and without the population on the Bank. The model results suggest that 1) spatial- and temporal- dependent mortality rate play a key role in determining Pseudocalanus population dynamics; 2) Population from outside of the Bank (primarily the western Gulf of Maine) is an important source for GB Pseudocalanus population and GB population is unlikely to self-sustain; and 3) Both temperature and phytoplankton co-vary with Pseudocalanus population and the seasonality of the population might be triggered primarily by temperature variation. Moreover, research activities closely associated with this U.S. GLOBEC 4B project were also presented, including the analysis on the impact of ocean freshening on the timing and magnitude of phytoplankton blooms in the Gulf of Maine, which has lead directly to NSF support to expand our work for the next three years with all PIs from our 4B projects.