Ocean Settings

Launch Model

Ice Concentration - Sea ice concentration over the water.

Concentration of sea ice over the water column. A value of 0 is ice-free and a value of 1 is completely ice covered. Sea ice floats on the surface of the water and affects the amount of light that can reach the surface of the ocean.

Vary ice from 0 to 1. What happens? Why?


Ocean Temperature

Phytoplankton growth rates are dependent on temperature.

Vary temperature from -4° to 25°C. What happens to the timing of the bloom?


Initial Nitrogen - Initial nitrogen concentration in the water.

In this example, initially, the concentration of nitrogen is set to 5 μM everywhere in the ocean. This initial amount is the total available at any time in the model run and determines the total biomass that can accumulate.

Vary initial nitrogen from 0 to 20. What happens to the timing of the bloom? What happens to the magnitude of the bloom?


Remineralization Rate - Proportion of dead phytoplankton, zooplankton, and detritus that remineralizes to nitrogen per day.

The remineralization rate determines how fast detritus (dead stuff) remineralizes (gets transformed back into nutrients like nitrogen).

Vary remineralization rate from 0 to 0.5. What happens to nitrogen concentrations? Why? (you may have to increase the runtime to see what happens)

Launch Model