Modeling run underway to predict acidification’s impacts in Bight

SCCWRP and its partners have begun running a computationally intensive, high-resolution computer model that predicts how the Southern California Bight will be affected by ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH).

The modeling run, launched in January, will model OAH’s impacts using a grid size of 300 meters. It is expected to take up to a month for the computers to complete the run; results will be shared during a stakeholder meeting this spring.

Researchers changed the resolution size of the model from 1 kilometer to 300 meters last year in response to feedback from SCCWRP member agencies and other managers, who determined that the higher resolution is necessary to properly capture how nutrients are transported to and through Bight coastal waters.

The modeling work involves coupling 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 OAH.