DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON IN MODELING OCEANIC NEW PRODUCTION

The flux of organic carbon associated with new production has been modeled by advection of dissolved organic carbon in addition to falling particulate organic carbon, in a carbon cycle model that is based on an oceanic general circulation model. Model predictions of chemical species involved in the carbon cycle are compared with observations. Relative to a model in which new production is carried only by falling particulate organic carbon, there is significantly better agreement between predicted and observed oceanic phosphate and oxygen concentrations if a large part of the new production flux is carried by dissolved organic carbon.