Chapter 5: Applications to Biogeochemical Cycles and Global Climate Change

In this chapter we review and conjecture on how biogeographical provinces and satellite data can aid us in understanding biogeochemical cycles in the ocean. The relative strength of the biological pump can be dependent on the dominant type of phytoplankton. Broad scale variations in the species composition and diversity of biogeochemical functions of the ocean ecosystem can be described through a combination of physical and biological criteria (e.g. Longhurst 1998). Clearly the interplay of the local physical and nutrient environments leads to the delineations of these provinces. Thus provinces can be determined by nutrient availability and types of dominant species (the subject of the next two sections). In the third section we give examples of how inter-annual variability affects province productivity and phytoplankton assemblages. Long term variability resulting from climate change remains difficult to determine. In the fourth section we consider how biogeochemical cycles (nutrient availability, primary production, phytoplankton assemblages, and their feedback on air-sea exchange of CO2) are changing and how they may continue to change in the future.

DUTKIEWICZ Stephanie;  BEAUGRAND Gregory;  HOEPFFNER Nicolas;  KAMYKOWSKI Daniel;  MELIN Frederic; 

2010-02-01

International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group

JRC56617

1098-6030,