Dataset of model hindcast and climate projection data from a NEMO-ERSEM simulation of the 7km-resolution Atlantic Margin Model (AMM7). Model description and data are presented in Wakelin, S. L., Y. Artioli, J. T. Holt, M. Butenschön, and J. Blackford (2020), Controls on near-bed oxygen concentration on the Northwest European Continental Shelf under a potential future climate scenario, Progress in Oceanography, 102400. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2020.102400. Coupled NEMO-ERSEM model simulations are used to study temperature, salinity and near-bed oxygen concentrations on the northwest European Continental Shelf (NWES). Data are from a hindcast (1980 to 2007) and a climate projection (1980 to 2099) under the RCP8.5 climate emissions scenario. The climate projection (1980 to 2099) under the RCP8.5 climate emissions scenario is described as experiment E1 in Holt, J., J. Polton, J. Huthnance, S. Wakelin, E. O'Dea, J. Harle, A. Yool, Y. Artioli, J. Blackford, J. Siddorn, and M. Inall (2018), Climate-Driven Change in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans Can Greatly Reduce the Circulation of the North Sea, Geophysical Research Letters, 45(21), 11,827-811,836. doi: 10.1029/2018gl078878. The dataset consists of Hindcast simulation data AMM7_hindcast_3D_S_1980_2007.nc - monthly mean salinity fields. AMM7_hindcast_3D_T_1980_2007.nc - monthly mean temperature fields. AMM7_hindcast_near_bed_O2o_1980_2007.nc - near-bed oxygen concentrations on the NWES. Climate projection data AMM7_RCP8_5_3D_S_1980_2099.nc - monthly mean salinity fields. AMM7_RCP8_5_3D_T_1980_2099.nc - monthly mean temperature fields. AMM7_RCP8_5_3D_U_1980_2099.nc - monthly mean eastwards currents. AMM7_RCP8_5_3D_V_1980_2099.nc - monthly mean northwards currents. AMM7_RCP8_5_near_bed_1980_2099.nc - monthly mean near-bed oxygen concentrations and near-bed bacterial respiration on the NWES. AMM7_RCP8_5_netPP_1980_2099.nc - monthly mean depth integrated net primary production.
Abstract. The increase in atmospheric CO2 is a dual threat to the marine environment: from one side it drives climate change leading to changes in water temperature, circulation patterns and stratification intensity; on the other side it causes a decrease in pH (Ocean Acidification or OA) due to the increase in dissolved CO2. Assessing the combined impact of climate change and OA on marine ecosystems is a challenging task: the response of the ecosystem to a single driver is highly variable and still uncertain, as well as the interaction between these that could be either synergistic or antagonistic. In this work we use the coupled oceanographic-ecosystem model POLCOMS-ERSEM driven by climate forcing to study the interaction between climate change and OA. We focus in particular on primary production and nitrogen speciation. The model has been run in three different configurations in order to separate the impacts of ocean acidification from those due to climate change. The model shows significant interaction among the drivers and high variability in the spatial response of the ecosystem. Impacts of climate change and of OA on primary production have similar magnitude, compensating in some area and exacerbating in others. On the contrary, the direct impact of OA on nitrification is much lower than the one imposed by climate change.
Abstract. In this paper we clearly demonstrate that changes in oceanic nutrients are a first order factor in determining changes in the primary production of the northwest European continental shelf on time scales of 5–10 yr. We present a series of coupled hydrodynamic ecosystem modelling simulations, using the POLCOMS-ERSEM system. These are forced by both re-analysis data and a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model (OA-GCM) representative of possible conditions in 2080–2100 under an SRES A1B emissions scenario, along with the corresponding present day control. The OA-GCM forced simulations show a substantial reduction in surface nutrients in the open-ocean regions of the model domain, comparing future and present day time-slices. This arises from a large increase in oceanic stratification. Tracer transport experiments identify a substantial fraction of on-shelf water originates from the open-ocean region in the south of the domain, where this increase is largest, and indeed the on-shelf nutrient and primary production are reduced as this water is transported on shelf. This relationship is confirmed quantitatively by comparing changes in winter nitrate with total annual nitrate uptake. The reduction in primary production by the reduced nutrient transport is mitigated by on-shelf processes relating to temperature, stratification (length of growing season) and recycling. Regions less exposed to ocean-shelf exchange in this model (Celtic Sea, Irish Sea, English Channel, and southern North Sea) show a modest increase in primary production (of 5–10 %) compared with a decrease of 0–20 % in the outer shelf, central and northern North Sea. These findings are backed up by a boundary condition perturbation experiment and a simple mixing model.
Oral presentation at European Geophysical Union Conference EGU General Assembly 2013, held 7-12 April, 2013 in Vienna, Austria. Abstract http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013EGUGA..15.7507H
Abstract. The increase in atmospheric CO2 is a dual threat to the marine environment: from one side it drives climate change, leading to modifications in water temperature, circulation patterns and stratification intensity; on the other side it causes a decrease in marine pH (ocean acidification, or OA) due to the increase in dissolved CO2. Assessing the combined impact of climate change and OA on marine ecosystems is a challenging task. The response of the ecosystem to a single driver can be highly variable and remains still uncertain; additionally the interaction between these can be either synergistic or antagonistic. In this work we use the coupled oceanographic–ecosystem model POLCOMS-ERSEM driven by climate forcing to study the interaction between climate change and OA. We focus in particular on carbonate chemistry, primary and secondary production. The model has been run in three different configurations in order to assess separately the impacts of climate change on net primary production and of OA on the carbonate chemistry, which have been strongly supported by scientific literature, from the impact of biological feedbacks of OA on the ecosystem, whose uncertainty still has to be well constrained. The global mean of the projected decrease of pH at the end of the century is about 0.27 pH units, but the model shows significant interaction among the drivers and high variability in the temporal and spatial response. As a result of this high variability, critical tipping point can be locally and/or temporally reached: e.g. undersaturation with respect to aragonite is projected to occur in the deeper part of the central North Sea during summer. Impacts of climate change and of OA on primary and secondary production may have similar magnitude, compensating in some area and exacerbating in others.