New study highlights the importance of zooplankton representation in Earth System Models

This tiny batch of zooplankton includes individuals best measured in millimeters. Credit: NOAA

New research highlighted in GFDL's Spring Bulletin, and led by MAPP-funded PI Colleen Petrik (Scripps) shows that better representation of mesozooplankton-chlorophyll relationships in ESMs will improve the projections of climate change impacts on mesozooplankton biomass globally, as well as regional biomes. Zooplankton are marine animals that are major contributors to the transfer of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean.

This research is important to advance GDFL's modeling systems because the study shows that including systematic evaluations of zooplankton biomass in models could improve models’ representation of ocean biogeochemistry.