Development and Application of a Marine Ecosystem Dynamic Model

A nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton-detritus （NPZD） type of marine ecosystem model was developed in this study,and was further coupled to a three-dimensional primitive-equation ocean circulation model with a river discharge model and a solar radiation model to reproduce the dynamics of the low nutrition level in the Bohai Sea （BS）.The simulation results were validated by observations and it was shown that the seasonal variation in the phytoplankton biomass could be characterized by the double-peak structure,corresponding to the spring and summer blooms,respectively.It was also found that both nitrogen and phosphate declined to the lowest level after the onset of the summer bloom,since the large amounts of nutrients were exhausted by phytoplankton for photosynthesis,and the concentrations of nutrients could resume in winter after a series of the biogeochemical-physical processes.By calculating the nitrogen/phosphorus （N/P） ratio,it is easy to see that the phytoplankton dynamics is nitrogen-limited as a whole in BS,though the phosphorus limitation may occur in the Yellow River （YR） Estuary where the input of riverine nitrogen is much more than that of phosphate.

Numerical study on spatially varying control parameters of a marine ecosystem dynamical model with adjoint method

Based on the simulation of a marine ecosystem dynamical model in the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, chlorophyll data are assimilated to study the spatially varying control parameters （CPs） by using the adjoint method. In this study, the CPs at some grid points are selected as the independent CPs, while the CPs at other grid points can be obtained through linear interpolation with the independent CPs. The independent CPs are uniformly selected from each 30′ × 30′area, and we confirm that the optimal influence radius is 1.2° by a twin experiment. In the following experiments, when only the maximum growth rate of phytoplankton （Vm） is estimated by two given types of spatially varying CPs, the mean relative errors of Vm are 1.22% and 0.94% while the decrease rates of the mean error of chlorophyll in the surface are 94.6% and 95.8%, respectively. When the other four CPs are estimated respectively, the results are also satisfactory, which indicates that the adjoint method has a strong ability of optimizing the prescribed CP with spatial variations. However, when all these five most important CPs are estimated simultaneously, the collocation of the changing trend of each parameter influences the estimation results remarkably. Only when the collocation of the changing trend of each parameter is consistent with the ecological mechanisms which influence the growth of the phytoplankton in marine ecosystem, could the five most important CPs be estimated more accurately.

Numerical experiments of HAB inducement in Qingdao adjacent coastal area

A three-dimension ecological dynamic model was established to numerically study the relationship of HAB and environmental conditions.The numerical experiments showed that the growth of diatom,the dominant HAB specie,was mainly restricted by phosphate and silicate.If the concentrations of phosphate and silicate reach 17-25 μg/L and 300-375 μg/L respectively,the water is in a state of eutrophication.When phosphate and silicate up to 26-32 μg/L and 350-500 μg/L respectively,HAB could be induced.The major regions of HAB occurrence are Jiaozhou Bay mouth,coastal bays,and coastal area from Maidao to Shilaoren.To avoid HAB occurrence,concentration of phosphate and silicate should not exceed 17-20 μg/L and 300 μg/L as a whole.Reasonable control of pollutant discharge is a key point to prevent water eutrophication and HAB occurrence.