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Technical Document

Introduction

PISCES (Pelagic Interactions Scheme for Carbon and Ecosystem Studies) is a marine biogeochemistry model that simulates the lower trophic levels of marine ecosystems (phytoplankton, microzooplankton and mesozooplankton) and the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, oxygen and major nutrients (P, N, Fe, Si). The model is used in regional and global ocean configurations at high and low spatial resolutions and for short (seasonal, interannual) and long term simulations (climate change, paleoceanography).

PISCES is implemented in two ocean modeling platforms, NEMO and CROCO. It is the reference marine biogeochemistry model for the Earth system models of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Météo-France and EC-Earth, as well as for the operational oceanography services of Mercator Ocean International.

This document presents the technical details of the PISCES model, primarily based on the version described in Aumont et al. (20151), and it incorporates several recent developments, including some that have not yet been published. Many of the scientific choices underlying PISCES are detailed in Aumont et al. (20032, 20063, 20151, 20174) and Kwiatkowski et al., (20185).

  1. Olivier Aumont, Christian Ethé, Alessandro Tagliabue, Laurent Bopp, and Marion Gehlen. PISCES-v2: an ocean biogeochemical model for carbon and ecosystem studies. Geoscientific Model Development, 8:2465–2513, 2015. doi:10.5194/gmd-8-2465-2015. ↩↩

  2. O. Aumont, E. Maier-Reimer, S. Blain, and P. Monfray. An ecosystem model of the global ocean including fe, si, p co-limitation. Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 17:10.1029/2001GB001745, 2003. doi:10.1029/2001GB001745. ↩

  3. O. Aumont and L. Bopp. Globalizing results from ocean in-situ iron fertilization studies. Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 2006. doi:10.1029/2005GB002591. ↩

  4. Olivier Aumont, Marco van Hulten, Matthieu Roy-Barman, Jean-Claude Dutay, Christian Éthé, and Marion Gehlen. Variable reactivity of particulate organic matter in a global ocean biogeochemical model. Biogeosciences, 14(9):2321–2341, 2017. doi:10.5194/bg-14-2321-2017. ↩

  5. Lester Kwiatkowski, Olivier Aumont, Laurent Bopp, and Philippe Ciais. The Impact of Variable Phytoplankton Stoichiometry on Projections of Primary Production, Food Quality, and Carbon Uptake in the Global Ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 32(4):516–528, 2018. doi:10.1002/2017GB005799. ↩