Resolution of West Coast acidification model being increased to improve accuracy

West Coast researchers working to develop a computer model that predicts how the region’s coastal waters will be affected by ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) have decided to increase the resolution of the model grid to more accurately estimate environmental conditions.

Instead of modeling OAH’s impacts in the Southern California Bight using a 1-kilometer grid, a grid size of 300 meters will be used. The higher resolution will add about three months to the time required to run the computationally intensive model.

Modelers, including at SCCWRP, have determined that the higher resolution is necessary to adequately capture how nutrients are transported to and through coastal ocean water.

The modeling work involves coupling West Coast physical and biogeochemical ocean models together to understand the roles of global carbon dioxide emissions, natural upwelling processes and nutrients introduced via wastewater effluent, stormwater runoff and atmospheric deposition in driving coastal ocean acidification.