"A Modelling Study of Emiliania huxleyi in the NE Atlantic"
Tyrrell, T. & Taylor, A.H. (1995) A modelling study of Emiliania
huxleyi in the NE Atlantic. Journal of Marine Systems special
issue on Emiliania huxleyi, 9(1/2):195-203.
Abstract
Intensive (> 10,000 cells per ml) and extensive (> 100,000 km squared)
blooms of the coccolithophore E. huxleyi frequently occur in the NE
Atlantic, most frequently in the months of June and July, and only north of
50 degrees N. This article describes a modelling study of these blooms,
with the aim of understanding why they occur. That is to say, which water
conditions allow E. huxleyi to become dominant amongst the
phytoplankton? Providing answers to these questions in the NE Atlantic, and
comparing the results with data from other areas, allows us to tackle the
question: what is the ecological niche for E. huxleyi?
The model described in this article is a single-layer 1D Eulerian
phytoplankton seasonal succession model, with detailed representations of
physical, chemical and biological forcings and interactions. Model
assumptions and their derivation from data are described, and sensitivity
analyses examine the reliance of model results on individual assumptions.
The model results suggest that, in the summer of 1991 in the NE Atlantic,
the most likely factors causing the bloom of E. huxleyi were high
light (high surface irradiances, shallow stratification) and low phosphate
(phosphate more limiting than nitrate). The model was able to reproduce the
observed distribution of E. huxleyi in the NE Atlantic by assuming
that E. huxleyi has similar limitations to other phytoplankton
species except that it possesses a competitive advantage at high light and
low phosphate.
Ehux
home page
Toby Tyrrell : T.Tyrrell@noc.soton.ac.uk