Report on the biogeochemical model of the North-Western European Shelf

Abstract

The report presents the background of the newly developed marine model covering the North and Celtic Sea. The 3d-model includes all relevant hydrodynamical drivers (tides, currents, water temperature and salinity) and a biogeochemical model of the lower trophic foodweb including essential dissolved nutrients (nitrate, ammonium, phosphate, silicate, carbon and oxygen) and several phytoplankton groups. The moel results are mainly assessed for the indicators, used for the assessment of descriptor 5 ("eutrophication") within the EU Marine Strategy Framwork Directive (MSFD). The coupled model was used to simulate the present state (covering the period 2005 - 2012) and its results are compared and validated, using a variety of different datasets of observations.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource