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Modeling global water use for the 21st century: the Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS) initiative and its approaches

The Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS) initiative coordinates its work with other ongoing scenario efforts for the sake of establishing a consistent set of new global water scenarios based on the shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) and the representative concentration pathways (RCPs). The WFaS “fast-track” assessment uses three global water models, H08, PCR-GLOBWB, and WaterGAP, to provide the first multi-model analysis of global water use for the 21st century based on the water scenarios.

The assessment of a global marine ecosystem model on the basis of emergent properties and ecosystem function: a case study with ERSEM

To use models to inform policy or to forecast the impact of climate change, the model must first be shown to be a valid representation of the ecosystem. Here we show an novel method to validate a marine model using its ability to represent ecosystem function. These relationships are the community structure, the carbon to chlorophyll ratio and the stoichiometric balance of the ecosystem. These methods are powerful, valid over large spatial scales and independent of the circulation model.

ERSEM">Read more

Modelling Mediterranean agro-ecosystems by including agricultural trees in the LPJmL model

This study presents the inclusion of 10 Mediterranean agricultural plants in an agro-ecosystem model (LPJmL): nut trees, date palms, citrus trees, orchards, olive trees, grapes, cotton, potatoes, vegetables and fodder grasses. The model was successfully tested in three model outputs: agricultural yields, irrigation requirements and soil carbon density. With this development presented, LPJmL is now able to simulate in good detail and mechanistically the functioning of Mediterranean agriculture.

ECCO version 4: an integrated framework for non-linear inverse modeling and global ocean state estimation

The ECCO v4 non-linear inverse modeling framework and its reference solution are made publicly available. The inverse estimate of ocean physics and atmospheric forcing yields a dynamically consistent and global state estimate without unidentified sources of heat and salt that closely fits in situ and satellite data. Any user can reproduce it accurately. Parametric and external model uncertainties are of comparable magnitudes and generally exceed structural model uncertainties.

ECCO version 4: an integrated framework for non-linear inverse modeling and global ocean state estimation">Read more

POM.gpu-v1.0: a GPU-based Princeton Ocean Model

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are an attractive solution in many scientific applications due to their high performance. However, most existing GPU conversions of climate models use GPUs for only a few computationally intensive regions. In the present study, we redesign the mpiPOM (a parallel version of the Princeton Ocean Model) with GPUs. We show that the performance of the new model on a workstation containing four GPUs is comparable to that on a powerful cluster with 408 standard CPU cores, and it reduces the energy consumption by a factor of 6.8.

POM.gpu-v1.0: a GPU-based Princeton Ocean Model">Read more

EMPOWER-1.0: an Efficient Model of Planktonic ecOsystems WrittEn in R

Ecosystem models provide a powerful tool for simulating ocean biology. Care must be exercised when selecting appropriate equations and parameter values to represent chosen marine ecosystems. Here, we present an efficient plankton model testbed, using simplified physics and coded in the freely available language R. Multiple runs can be undertaken for different ocean sites, permitting thorough evaluation of ecosystem model performance. The testbed also serves as an excellent resource for teaching.

EMPOWER-1.0: an Efficient Model of Planktonic ecOsystems WrittEn in R">Read more

¹⁴C-age tracers in global ocean circulation models

The natural abundance of ¹⁴C in CO₂ dissolved in seawater is often used to evaluate circulation and age in the ocean and in ocean models. We study limitations of using natural ¹⁴C to determine the time elapsed since water had contact with the atmosphere. We find that, globally, bulk ¹⁴C age is dominated by two equally important components, (1) the time component of circulation and (2) the “preformed ¹⁴C-age”. Considering preformed ¹⁴C-age is critical for an assessment of circulation in models.

A large-scale simulation model to assess karstic groundwater recharge over Europe and the Mediterranean

We present a new approach to assess karstic groundwater recharge over Europe and the Mediterranean. Cluster analysis is used to subdivide all karst regions into four typical karst landscapes and to simulate karst recharge with a process-based karst model. We estimate its parameters by a combination of a priori information and observations of soil moisture and evapotranspiration. Independent observations of recharge that present large-scale models significantly under-estimate karstic recharge.

Improved routines to model the ocean carbonate system: mocsy 2.0

We provide improved routines to model the ocean carbonate system, i.e., to compute ocean pH and related variables from dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity. These routines (1) rely on the fastest available algorithm to solve the alkalinity-pH equation, which converges even under extreme conditions; (2) avoid common model approximations that lead to errors of 3% or more in computed variables; and (3) account for large pressure effects on subsurface pCO2, unlike other packages.

Short ensembles: an efficient method for discerning climate-relevant sensitivities in atmospheric general circulation models

This paper explores the feasibility of an experimentation strategy for investigating sensitivities in fast components of atmospheric general circulation models.

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