Work Package 6

Spatially-explicit, individual-based modelling of trophodynamic processes in the Peruvian upwelling system

Work Package Leaders

Description

Work package 6 will be carried out in cooperation of GEOMAR and the University of Hamburg. Here, a spatially explicit model of the northern Humboldt ecosystem will be developed and applied. A biogeochemical lower trophic level (plankton) model previously has been embedded in a high-resolution ocean circulation model, and set up and evaluated at GEOMAR for the northern Humboldt upwelling system (ROMS-BioEBUS,  Shchepetkin and McWilliams, 2005, Gutknecht et al, 2013, Jose et al, 2017). ROMS-BioEBUS will be combined with a model that simulates higher trophic levels, that is, relevant fish species of the Peruvian upwelling and their life cycles (Object-oriented Simulator of Marine ecOSystems Exploitation OSMOSE, Shin & Cury 2001, Oliveros-Ramos et al, 2017). The development and evaluation of the end-to-end model ROMS-BioEBUS-OSMOSE will be supported by concurrent observational analyses, and carried out synergistically with the BMBF project Humboldt Tipping. Within CUSCO ROMS-BioEBUS-OSMOSE will then be used to compute a hindcast simulation and a climate change projection, with the goal to elucidate the relationship of upwelling intensity and ecosystem responses. With this, together with the other work packages, we support an assessment of the sensitivity of the Peruvian fish stocks to climate change and fishing pressure.

General Questions and Research topics

  • Which trophic pathways for transfer of energy are important in the northern Humboldt upwelling?   
  • How does the intensity of the upwelling affect the trophic transfer efficiency of energy to fish, in particular anchovy, and how does it affect export?        
  • What is the sensitivity of the system to physical variability, including climate change, and fishing pressure?

Bathymetry of the model domain in [m] (Source: Jose et al, 2017, Biogeosciences, doi:10.5194/bg-14-1349-2017)