Estimating mixed layer nitrate in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Steinhoff, Tobias, Friedrich, Tobias, Hartman, S.E., Oschlies, Andreas , Wallace, Douglas W.R. and Körtzinger, Arne (2010) Estimating mixed layer nitrate in the North Atlantic Ocean. Open Access Biogeosciences (BG), 7 . pp. 795-807. DOI 10.5194/bg-7-795-2010.

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Abstract

Here we present an equation for the estimation of nitrate in surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean (40° N to 52° N, 10° W to 60° W). The equation was derived by multiple linear regression (MLR) from nitrate, sea surface temperature (SST) observational data and model mixed layer depth (MLD) data. The observational data were taken from merchant vessels that have crossed the North Atlantic on a regular basis in 2002/2003 and from 2005 to the present. It is important to find a robust and realistic estimate of MLD because the deepening of the mixed layer is crucial for nitrate supply to the surface. We compared model data from two models (FOAM and Mercator) with MLD derived from float data (using various criteria). The Mercator model gives a MLD estimate that is close to the MLD derived from floats. MLR was established using SST, MLD from Mercator, time and latitude as predictors. Additionally a neural network was trained with the same dataset and the results were validated against both model data as a "ground truth" and an independent observational dataset. This validation produced RMS errors of the same order for MLR and the neural network approach. We conclude that it is possible to estimate nitrate concentrations with an uncertainty of ±1.4 μmol L−1 in the North Atlantic.

Document Type: Article
Research affiliation: OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB2 Marine Biogeochemistry > FB2-BM Biogeochemical Modeling
OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB2 Marine Biogeochemistry > FB2-CH Chemical Oceanography
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: Yes
Publisher: Copernicus Publications (EGU)
Projects: Future Ocean
Date Deposited: 11 May 2010 11:05
Last Modified: 23 Sep 2019 17:16
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/6203

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