How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?

Marine ecosystem models used to investigate how global change affects ocean ecosystems and their functioning typically omit pelagic plankton diversity. Diversity, however, may affect functions such as primary production and their sensitivity to environmental changes. Here we use a global ocean ecosy...

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Main Authors: Prowe, A. E. F., Pahlow, M., Dutkiewicz, Stephanie, Oschlies, A.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Copernicus GmbH on behalf of the European Geosciences Union 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89185
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author Prowe, A. E. F.
Pahlow, M.
Dutkiewicz, Stephanie
Oschlies, A.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Prowe, A. E. F.
Pahlow, M.
Dutkiewicz, Stephanie
Oschlies, A.
author_sort Prowe, A. E. F.
collection MIT
description Marine ecosystem models used to investigate how global change affects ocean ecosystems and their functioning typically omit pelagic plankton diversity. Diversity, however, may affect functions such as primary production and their sensitivity to environmental changes. Here we use a global ocean ecosystem model that explicitly resolves phytoplankton diversity by defining subtypes within four phytoplankton functional types (PFTs). We investigate the model's ability to capture diversity effects on primary production under environmental change. An idealized scenario with a sudden reduction in vertical mixing causes diversity and primary-production changes that turn out to be largely independent of the number of coexisting phytoplankton subtypes. The way diversity is represented in the model provides a small number of niches with respect to nutrient use in accordance with the PFTs defined in the model. Increasing the number of phytoplankton subtypes increases the resolution within the niches. Diversity effects such as niche complementarity operate between, but not within PFTs, and are constrained by the variety of traits and trade-offs resolved in the model. The number and nature of the niches formulated in the model, for example via trade-offs or different PFTs, thus determines the diversity effects on ecosystem functioning captured in ocean ecosystem models.
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spelling mit-1721.1/891852022-10-02T01:47:59Z How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models? Prowe, A. E. F. Pahlow, M. Dutkiewicz, Stephanie Oschlies, A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Dutkiewicz, Stephanie Marine ecosystem models used to investigate how global change affects ocean ecosystems and their functioning typically omit pelagic plankton diversity. Diversity, however, may affect functions such as primary production and their sensitivity to environmental changes. Here we use a global ocean ecosystem model that explicitly resolves phytoplankton diversity by defining subtypes within four phytoplankton functional types (PFTs). We investigate the model's ability to capture diversity effects on primary production under environmental change. An idealized scenario with a sudden reduction in vertical mixing causes diversity and primary-production changes that turn out to be largely independent of the number of coexisting phytoplankton subtypes. The way diversity is represented in the model provides a small number of niches with respect to nutrient use in accordance with the PFTs defined in the model. Increasing the number of phytoplankton subtypes increases the resolution within the niches. Diversity effects such as niche complementarity operate between, but not within PFTs, and are constrained by the variety of traits and trade-offs resolved in the model. The number and nature of the niches formulated in the model, for example via trade-offs or different PFTs, thus determines the diversity effects on ecosystem functioning captured in ocean ecosystem models. Kiel University (Cluster of Excellence "The Future Ocean") Technical University of Denmark (National Institute of Aquatic Resources, VKR Centre of Excellence "Ocean Life") United States. Dept. of Energy (Office of Science, grant DE-FG02-94ER61937) National Science Foundation (U.S.) 2014-09-04T21:19:42Z 2014-09-04T21:19:42Z 2014-06 2014-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1726-4189 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89185 Prowe, A. E. F., M. Pahlow, S. Dutkiewicz, and A. Oschlies. “How Important Is Diversity for Capturing Environmental-Change Responses in Ecosystem Models?” Biogeosciences 11, no. 12 (June 27, 2014): 3397–3407. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3397-2014 Biogeosciences Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ application/pdf Copernicus GmbH on behalf of the European Geosciences Union Copernicus Publications
spellingShingle Prowe, A. E. F.
Pahlow, M.
Dutkiewicz, Stephanie
Oschlies, A.
How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?
title How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?
title_full How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?
title_fullStr How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?
title_full_unstemmed How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?
title_short How important is diversity for capturing environmental-change responses in ecosystem models?
title_sort how important is diversity for capturing environmental change responses in ecosystem models
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89185
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