Application of an automatic approach to calibrate the NEMURO nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankto n food web model in the Oyashio region

• Published in: Progress in oceanography Vol. 87; no. 1-2; pp. 186 - 200
• Main Authors: Ito, Shin-ichi, Yoshie, Naoki, Okunishi, Takeshi, Ono, Tsuneo, Okazaki, Yuji, Kuwata, Akira, Hashioka, Taketo, Rose, Kenneth A, Megrey, Bernard A, Kishi, Michio J, Nakamachi, Miwa, Shimizu, Yugo, Kakehi, Shigeho, Saito, Hiroaki, Takahashi, Kazutaka, Tadokoro, Kazuaki, Kusaka, Akira, Kasai, Hiromi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2010
• Subjects: Calibration; Computer simulation; Dynamics; Estimates; Functional groups; Marine; Mathematical models; Migration; Pests; Zooplankton
• ISSN: 0079-6611
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2010.08.004

The Oyashio region in the western North Pacific supports high biological productivity and has been well monitored. We applied the NEMURO (North Pacific Ecosystem Model for Understanding Regional Oceanography) model to simulate the nutrients, phytoplankton, and zooplankton dynamics. Determination of parameters values is very important, yet ad hoc calibration methods are often used. We used the automatic calibration software PEST (model-independent Parameter ESTimation), which has been used previously with NEMURO but in a system without ontogenetic vertical migration of the large zooplankton functional group. Determining the performance of PEST with vertical migration, and obtaining a set of realistic parameter values for the Oyashio, will likely be useful in future applications of NEMURO. Five identical twin simulation experiments were performed with the one-box version of NEMURO. The experiments differed in whether monthly snapshot or averaged state variables were used, in whether state variables were model functional groups or were aggregated (total phytoplankton, small plus large zooplankton), and in whether vertical migration of large zooplankton was included or not. We then applied NEMURO to monthly climatological field data covering 1 year for the Oyashio, and compared model fits and parameter values between PEST-determined estimates and values used in previous applications to the Oyashio region that relied on ad hoc calibration. We substituted the PEST and ad hoc calibrated parameter values into a 3-D version of NEMURO for the western North Pacific, and compared the two sets of spatial maps of chlorophyll-a with satellite-derived data. The identical twin experiments demonstrated that PEST could recover the known model parameter values when vertical migration was included, and that over-fitting can occur as a result of slight differences in the values of the state variables. PEST recovered known parameter values when using monthly snapshots of aggregated state variables, but estimated a different set of parameters with monthly averaged values. Both sets of parameters resulted in good fits of the model to the simulated data. Disaggregating the variables provided to PEST into functional groups did not solve the over-fitting problem, and including vertical migration seemed to amplify the problem. When we used the climatological field data, simulated values with PEST-estimated parameters were closer to these field data than with the previously determined ad hoc set of parameter values. When these same PEST and ad hoc sets of parameter values were substituted into 3-D-NEMURO (without vertical migration), the PEST-estimated parameter values generated spatial maps that were similar to the satellite data for the Kuroshio Extension during January and March and for the subarctic ocean from May to November. With non-linear problems, such as vertical migration, PEST should be used with caution because parameter estimates can be sensitive to how the data are prepared and to the values used for the searching parameters of PEST. We recommend the usage of PEST, or other parameter optimization methods, to generate first-order parameter estimates for simulating specific systems and for insertion into 2-D and 3-D models. The parameter estimates that are generated are useful, and the inconsistencies between simulated values and the available field data provide valuable information on model behavior and the dynamics of the ecosystem.