Modeling the impacts of atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and desert dust-derived phosphorus on nutrients and biological budgets of the Mediterranean Sea

Modeling the biogeochemical impact of atmospheric phosphate deposition from desert dust and combustion sources to the Mediterranean Sea

“…Average deposition flux 220 over the basin is 0.122 10 9 g PO 4 month −1 with notable monthly variability (standard deviation = 0.102 10 9 g PO 4 month −1 ). This seasonal cycle of dust deposition is similar to the one simulated by the regional model ALADIN-Climat (Nabat et al, 2012) used in Richon et al (2017) …”

“…Biogeochemical characteristics of the latest version of the NEMOMED12/PISCES model are evaluated in Richon et al (2017). The model satisfyingly reproduces the vertical distribution of nutrients in the basin and the main productive zones that are the Alboran Sea, the Gulf of Lions and most coastal areas (see appendix).…”

“…Richon et al (2017) use a regional coupled dynamical--biogeochemical high resolution model of the Mediterranean Sea to study the impacts of N deposi-65 tion from natural and anthropogenic sources and phosphate from dust on the biogeochemistry of the Mediterranean Sea. In the present study, we extend this investigation of phosphate deposition effects by further considering the contribution of P from combustion sources from anthropogenic activities and wildfires, and comparing the effects of desert dust and combustion inputs of phosphate on the marine surface nutrient and biogeochemical budgets.…”

“…The latest developments of the PISCES model are described in Aumont et al (2015). The regional coupled configuration NEMOMED12/PISCES was developed by Palmiéri (2014) and Richon et al (2017). We prescribe riverine nutrients inputs from the estimation of Lud- (Locarnini et al, 2006).…”

“…The model is run in off-line mode like in the studies performed by Palmiéri et al (2015), Guyennon et al (2015), Ayache et al (2015Ayache et al ( , 2016a and Richon et al (2017). PISCES passive biogeochemical tracers are transported using an advection-diffusion scheme driven by dynamical variables…”