Title Information
Title
A Data Assimilating Model of the Microbial Ecosystem in the Open Ocean
Name: Personal
Name Part
Luo, Yawei
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Origin Information
Copyright Date (keyDate="yes", encoding="w3cdtf")
2009
Physical Description
Extent
xiv, 310 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Brown University (2010)
Name: Personal
Name Part
Ducklow, Hugh
Role
Role Term: Text
director
Name: Personal
Name Part
Friedrichs, Marjorie
Role
Role Term: Text
reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Prell, Warren
Role
Role Term: Text
reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Vallino, Joseph
Role
Role Term: Text
reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Division of Biology and Medicine. Ecological and Evolutionary Biology
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
Prokaryotic microbes, commonly termed bacteria, are essential components of the ecosystem in the open ocean. They are major primary producers, major diazotrophs that fix dinitrogen (N2) into new bio-available nitrogen, and are major consumers of dissolved organic matter (DOM). An ocean ecosystem model was constructed for the open ocean focusing on bacterial dynamics. A data assimilation technology was adapted to integrate the model with observations by objectively optimizing model parameters and minimizing the differences between the model results and observations. As up to 17 types of major biogeochemical observations, usually in seasonal or monthly profiles, were assimilated, the model was constrained and tested rigorously to fit different aspects of the ecosystem simultaneously. The 1-dimensional model was applied to three open ocean sites: the Arabian Sea, Equatorial Pacific and Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT). Good fitness to most of the observations supported the robustness of the model and reliability of the results. The results indicated the importance of heterotrophic bacteria in carbon cycling and nutrient regeneration in all the three sites. Semilabile DOM was identified as a stabilizing resource for heterotrophic bacteria. The model also indicated refractory DOM could be an important form of export from the upper ocean. Heterotrophic bacterial production (BP) observations improved the model by strengthening constraints on the model parameters. Despite uncertainties related to estimating BP, the model supported current estimates of BP as 5 ? 25% of primary production and the commonly-used conversion factors for BP measurements as 0.7 ? 3.1 kg C/mol leucine incorporation. A 15-year modeling experiment at HOT successfully simulated the observed interannual increase of primary production. The model suggested three mechanisms for this increase: (1) the deepening mixed layer and increased physical nitrate supply from the deep ocean, (2) enhanced nitrogen recycling as part of N2 fixation was replaced with physical nitrate supply, and (3) new nitrogen supply from semilabile DOM. The last two mechanisms only applied to the surface 20 m.
Subject (Local)
Topic
Data assimilation
Subject (Local)
Topic
Marine Ecosystem
Subject (Local)
Topic
Model
Subject (Local)
Topic
Dissolved organic matter
Subject (Local)
Topic
Primary production
Subject (Local)
Topic
Dinitrogen fixation
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1753801")
Topic
Heterotrophic bacteria
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1766441")
Topic
Water--Organic compound content
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1038049")
Topic
Nitrogen--Fixation
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20091218
Language
Language Term: Code (ISO639-2B)
eng
Language Term: Text
English
Identifier: DOI
10.7301/Z07W69GG
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations