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We present BIOPERIANT12, a regional model configuration of the Southern Ocean (SO) at a mesoscale-resolving 1/12°. This is a stable, ocean–ice–biogeochemical configuration derived from the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) modelling platform. It is specifically designed to investigate questions related to the mean state, seasonal cycle variability and mesoscale processes in the mixed layer and within the upper ocean (<1000 m). In particular, the focus is on understanding processes behind carbon and heat exchange, systematic errors in biogeochemistry and assumptions underlying the parameters chosen to represent these SO processes. The dynamics of the ocean model play a large role in driving ocean biogeochemistry and we show that over the chosen period of analysis 2000–2009 that the simulated dynamics in the upper ocean provide a stable mean state, as compared to observation-based datasets (themselves subject to biases such as sparsity of data, cloud cover, etc.), and through which the characteristics of variability can be described. Using ocean biomes to delineate the major regions of the SO, the model demonstrates a useful representation of ocean biogeochemistry and partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2). In addition to a reasonable model mean state performance, through model–data metrics BIOPERIANT12 highlights several pathways for improving Southern Ocean model simulations such as the representation of temporal variability and the overestimation of biological biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]