An updated end-to-end ecosystem model of the Northern California Current reflecting ecosystem changes due to recent marine heatwaves
Fig 10
Primary production time series as both ecosystem model output and vertically generalized production model.
Satellite imagery-derived estimates of daily primary productivity via a vertically generalized production model (VGPM, blue lines) [50, 51] are plotted against ecosystem model-derived estimates of primary production driven by an upwelling time series (black lines are aggregated large and small phytoplankton functional groups). The average values of the final eight years of the VGPM (2014–2021) are used to inform the starting conditions (values) for the ecosystem model. After this point, the ecosystem model is driven entirely by nutrient inputs to the system as determined by the coastal upwelling transport index (CUTI) [42], and any resemblance to the VGPM time series is an indication that the ecosystem model is capturing the appropriate dynamics in primary productivity.