Ocean biogeochemistry is strongly influenced by the specific activity of various types of plankton.
In an effort to improve the representation of marine ecosystems, ocean biogeochemistry models have evolved
to include a growing number of organisms aggregated according to their functionality into "Plankton Functional
Types" (PFTs). Such models - now called Dynamic Green Ocean Models (DGOMs) - open up new and exciting
avenues of research to explore interactions
between marine ecosystems and climate change on various time scales.
The parameterisation and evaluation of PFTs in models requires a wide range of observations. Much work
has been done to measure the rates and biomass of plankton species using in situ observations,
laboratory studies, and more recently satellite data.
The "MARine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project" (MAREMIP) aims to foster the development of
models based on PFTs in order to progress towards the resolution of important scientific questions.
MAREMIP will also help build a community around marine ecosystem models, promote the interactions between
modellers and observationalists and the development of targeted observations, and document the evolution
of marine ecosystem models.
Important scientific questions to be addressed with :
- What are the main physical, chemical and biological processes that determine
the global marine biomass, its regional distribution, its distribution among size classes
and plankton groups, its organisation in biological provinces, its internal and external
fluxes, its variability, and its resilience to change?
- Are there multiple steady states in marine ecosystem distribution?
- What are the impacts of global environmental changes on marine ecosystems, including
climate change, ocean acidification, changes in nutrient input, and pressure by fisheries?
- Are there possible regime shifts associated with future environmental changes?
- What is the feedback from marine ecosystems to climate through the air-sea fluxes of CO2, N2, DMS and other climate-relevant gases?
- What is the importance of lower-trophic level ecosystems for the availability of marine resources?
- What is the role of ecosystem structure and biodiversity for biogeochemical fluxes, marine resources and climate?
- What observations are we missing in order to further our understanding of marine ecosystems?
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