Co-Convenors: Bernard A. Megrey (U.S.A.), Harold P. Batchelder (U.S.A.), Shin-ichi Ito (Japan), Guimei Liu (China) and Yvette Spitz (U.S.A.)
The objective of the Marine Ecosystem Model Inter-comparison Project (MEMIP) is to compare the performance of various lower trophic level marine ecosystem simulation models at predicting the abundance and distribution of coastal zooplankton functional groups. Models with high performance will be used to examine the future state of the marine ecosystem to global climate change. This workshop builds upon the discussions and planning accomplished at the successful workshop held at PICES-2009. The workshop will be technical, hands-on, and focus on parameterizing, executing and calibrating three test bed versions of a biogeochemical lower trophic level (LTL) marine ecosystem models. At each test bed 3 to 6 ecosystem models will be run. Specific ecosystem models (i.e., NPZD, NEMURO and CoSINE) will be executed. Some models will be tuned to run in a specific region and others will be applied to areas different from where they were calibrated. Model skill assessment will be evaluated. The models will be used to identify important mechanisms that control secondary production, zooplankton biomass and variability, as well as bounding the levels of uncertainty in model predictions by calculating ensemble statistics. Comparisons at multiple locations will provide information on the spatial-temporal robustness of particular model structures and parameterizations. The products of the comparison will contribute to FUTURE by estimating the uncertainty and the limits of forecasting.