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Bias errors, resulting from inaccurate boundary and forcing conditions, incorrect model parameterization, etc. are a common problem in environmental models including biogeochemical ocean models. While it is important to correct bias errors wherever possible, it is unlikely that any environmental model will ever be entirely free of such errors. Hence, methods for bias reduction are necessary. A widely used technique for online bias reduction is nudging, where simulated fields are continuously forced toward observations or a climatology. Nudging is robust and easy to implement, but suppresses high-frequency variability and introduces artificial phase shifts. As a solution to this problem Thompson et al. (2006) introduced frequency dependent nudging where nudging occurs only in prescribed frequency bands, typically centered on the mean and the annual cycle. They showed this method to be effective for eddy resolving ocean circulation models. Here we add a stability term to the previous form of frequency dependent nudging which makes the method more robust for non-linear biological models. Then we assess the utility of frequency dependent nudging for biological models by first applying the method to a simple predator–prey model and then to a 1D ocean biogeochemical model. In both cases we only nudge in two frequency bands centered on the mean and the annual cycle, and then assess how well the variability in higher frequency bands is recovered. We evaluate the effectiveness of frequency dependent nudging in comparison to conventional nudging and find significant improvements with the former.

Large reservoirs in the tropics act as efficient nutrient traps and often develop hypoxic conditions in the hypolimnion. Both effects may have severe implications for aquatic ecosystems, such as limited primary production in downstream riparian agriculture and in natural wetlands due to reduced nutrient loads, and, if hypolimnetic waters are withdrawn, hypoxic conditions that pose toxic risks in downstream rivers. This study using Itezhi-Tezhi Reservoir (Zambia) as a model system aims at defining optimized turbine withdrawal to prevent hypoxia and to relieve low-nutrient conditions in the downstream Kafue Flats floodplain. A biogeochemical 1-D model simulating reservoir-internal processes and water quality in the outflow was used for estimating dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations and inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus loads in the outflow. The water depth of turbine withdrawals was varied in a set of simulations to optimize outflow water quality. Releasing hypolimnetic water was shown to result in lower average outflow DO concentrations of 4.1-6.8 mg l(-1) compared to the current 7.6 mg l(-1). More importantly, the outflow will remain hypoxic during up to 189 days. Meanwhile, withdrawing nutrient-rich hypolimnetic water compensated effectively for nutrient losses to the reservoir sediment. Both outflow DO concentrations and nutrient output could be optimized in the scenario with 50% epilimnetic turbine discharge originating from approximate to 13 m depth. In this optimal scenario, hypoxia was prevented permanently, and average DO concentrations decreased moderately to 5.2 mg l(-1). Additionally, five-times higher dissolved inorganic N and dissolved inorganic P loads resulted in comparison to the current dam operation.

Landscape Ecology, 28 (5), ISSN:0921-2973, ISSN:1572-9761

The isotopic composition of Si in biogenic silica (BSi), such as opal buried in the oceans' sediments, has changed over time. Paleorecords suggest that the isotopic composition, described in terms of d30Si, was generally much lower during glacial times than today. There is consensus that this variability is attributable to differing environmental conditions at the respective time of BSi production and sedimentation. The detailed links between environmental conditions and the isotopic composition of BSi in the sediments remain, however, poorly constrained. In this study, we explore the effects of a suite of offset boundary conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) on the isotopic composition of BSi archived in sediments in an Earth System Model of intermediate complexity (EMIC). Our model results suggest that a change in the isotopic composition of Si supply to the glacial ocean is sufficient to explain the observed overall low(er) glacial d30Si in BSi. All other processes explored trigger model responses of either wrong sign or magnitude or are inconsistent with a recent estimate of bottom water oxygenation in the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean. Caveats, mainly associated with generic uncertainties in today's pelagic biogeochemical modules, remain. �� 2020. The Authors.

A coupled physical-biogeochemical model (ROMS-PISCES) forced by climatological fields is used to examine the role of upwelling filaments in the offshore exchange of particulate (POC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon in the Canary Current eastern boundary upwelling system (CanC EBUS). In this region, mesoscale filaments at Capes Ghir ( °N) and Juby ( °N) have been frequently described using both observational and numerical data. Due to their semi-permanent presence and unique dynamical characteristics, studies focusing on filaments often provide an incomplete picture of the physical and biological processes at work, and their effects on coast-to-ocean export. The present model experiment confirms the complex three-dimensional structure of the filaments that comprises both offshore and onshore flow components. The model shows strong seasonal variability in the offshore transport mediated by the filaments. Recirculation at the edges of the filaments returns water towards the shore, especially in autumn when they are diverted northwards by the large scale boundary circulation. By contrast, offshore transport peaks during late spring - early summer when onshore recirculation is limited. Overall, the estimated net annual offshore flux of excess total organic carbon (e-TOC, the non-refractory pools of DOC and POC) averages 2.0 kg C y−1, and may increase up to 4.3 kg C y−1 during the peak upwelling season, each filament contributing to export of up to 22.6% of the organic carbon within the first 100 km from shore along the CanC EBUS (between 9.5 and 32 ° N). These results strongly support the inclusion of offshore transport estimates by coastal filaments in regional carbon budgets., This research was supported by projects CAIBEX (CTM2007-66408-CO2-02) and FLUXES (CTM2015- 69392-C3-1-R) funded by the ‘Spanish Plan Nacional de I + D’, and by projects SUMMER (AMD-817806-5) and TRIATLAS (AMD-817578-5) financed by the 'European Commission' to JA. EM acknowledges support from the Spanish Research Agency and the European Regional Development Fund (Award no. CTM2016-78607-P).