Skip Navigation


JPR Advance Access originally published online on December 15, 2005
Journal of Plankton Research 2006 28(2):209-220; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi114
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
28/2/209    most recent
fbi114v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (5)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Findlay, H. S.
Right arrow Articles by Pitchford, J. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Findlay, H. S.
Right arrow Articles by Pitchford, J. W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Modelling of autumn plankton bloom dynamics

Helen S. Findlay1,2, Andrew Yool2,*, Marianna Nodale3 and Jonathan W. Pitchford1

1 Biology Department, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK, 2 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK and 3 The Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford 24-29 St Giles’, Oxford OX1 3LB, UK

* Corresponding author: axy{at}noc.soton.ac.uk

Received August 15, 2005; accepted in principle October 25, 2005; accepted for publication December 6, 2005; published online December 15, 2005
Communicating editor: K. J. Flynn

A simple system of parametrically forced ordinary differential equations is used to model autumn phytoplankton blooms in temperate oceans by a mechanism involving deepening of the upper mixed layer. Blooms are triggered provided the increase in nutrients in the mixed layer is rapid within the first few days of deepening and provided light-limited phytoplankton growth rate is relatively high. Blooms exist as transient trajectories between quasi-equilibrium states, rather than as bifurcations of steady states; therefore very gradual deepening cannot trigger blooms. Very rapid deepening also prevents blooms due to the deleterious effect on phytoplankton growth rate. The mechanisms identified by this simple model are vindicated by considering alternative grazing and deepening regimes and by comparison with a more ecologically complex model (Fasham, 1993, in The Global Carbon Cycle, Springer-Verlag). Modelled estimates of primary productivity from both the simple model and the complex model parameterized for Ocean Weather Station ‘India’ are around 0.5 g C m–2 day–1 during the autumn bloom, therefore comprising a significant component of annual production in temperate areas.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ICES J. Mar. Sci.Home page
M. A. Mustapha, S. Sei-Ichi, and T. Lihan
Satellite-measured seasonal variations in primary production in the scallop-farming region of the Okhotsk Sea
ICES J. Mar. Sci., August 1, 2009; 66(7): 1557 - 1569.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.