The carbonate system in the North Sea: sensitivity and model validation

[en] The ocean plays an important role in regulating the climate, acting as a sink for carbon dioxide, perturbing the carbonate system and resulting in a slow decrease of seawater pH. Understanding the dynamics of the carbonate system in shelf sea regions is necessary to evaluate the impact of Ocean Acidification (OA) in these societally important ecosystems. Complex hydrodynamic and ecosystem coupled models provide a method of capturing the significant heterogeneity of these areas. However rigorous validation is essential to properly assess the reliability of such models. The coupled model POLCOMS–ERSEM has been implemented in the North Western European shelf with a new parameterization for alkalinity explicitly accounting for riverine inputs and the influence of biological processes. The model has been validated in a like with like comparison with North Sea data from the CANOBA dataset. The model shows good to reasonable agreement for the principal variables, physical (temperature and salinity), biogeochemical nutrients) and carbonate system (dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity), but simulation of the erived variables, pH and pCO2, are not yet fully satisfactory. This high uncertainty is attributed mostly o riverine forcing and primary production. This study suggests that the model is a useful tool to provide information on Ocean Acidification scenarios, but uncertainty on pH and pCO2 needs to be reduced, particularly when impacts of OA on ecosystem functions are included in the model systems.

Research center :

FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège

Disciplines :

Aquatic sciences & oceanology

Author, co-author :

Artioli, Y.

Blackford, J.C.

Butenschön, M.

Holt, J.T.

Wakelin, S.L.

Thomas, H.

Borges, Alberto ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Océanographie chimique

Allen, J.I.

Language :

English

Title :

The carbonate system in the North Sea: sensitivity and model validation

Publication date :

2012

Journal title :

Journal of Marine Systems

ISSN :

0924-7963

Publisher :

Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Volume :

102-104

Issue :

Pages :

1-13

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 07 June 2012

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Bibliography

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